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Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work
Rudyard Kipling has remained an enigma despite his work having been read by millions worldwide. His autobiography revealed little and the "official" biography was heavily censored by his daughter. In this book, Angus Wilson has produced a searching study of Kipling's life and works, travelling through India, the country that formed the basis for so much of his work.
- GenresBiography
496 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
2 people are currently reading
73 people want to read
About the author
Angus Wilson
90 books42 followersSir Angus Frank Johnstone Wilson, KBE (11 August 1913 – 31 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot and later received a knighthood for his services to literature.
Wilson was born in Bexhill, Sussex, England, to an English father and South African mother. He was educated at Westminster School and Merton College, Oxford, and in 1937 became a librarian in the British Museum's Department of Printed Books, working on the new General Catalogue. During World War II, he worked in the Naval section Hut 8 at the code-breaking establishment, Bletchley Park, translating Italian Naval codes.
The work situation was stressful and led to a nervous breakdown, for which he was treated by Rolf-Werner Kosterlitz. He returned to the Museum after the end of the War, and it was there that he met Tony Garrett (born 1929), who was to be his companion for the rest of his life.
Wilson's first publication was a collection of short stories, The Wrong Set (1949), followed quickly by the daring novel Hemlock and After, which was a great success, prompting invitations to lecture in Europe.
He worked as a reviewer, and in 1955 he resigned from the British Museum to write full-time (although his financial situation did not justify doing so) and moved to Suffolk.
From 1957 he gave lectures further afield, in Japan, Switzerland, Australia, and the USA. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1968, and received many literary honours in succeeding years. He was knighted in 1980, and was President of the Royal Society of Literature from 1983 to 1988. His remaining years were affected by ill health, and he died of a stroke at a nursing home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on 31 May 1991, aged 77.
His writing, which has a strongly satirical vein, expresses his concern with preserving a liberal humanistic outlook in the face of fashionable doctrinaire temptations. Several of his works were adapted for television. He was Professor of English Literature at the University of East Anglia from 1966 to 1978, and jointly helped to establish their creative writing course at masters level in 1970, which was then a groundbreaking initiative in the United Kingdom.
Wilson was born in Bexhill, Sussex, England, to an English father and South African mother. He was educated at Westminster School and Merton College, Oxford, and in 1937 became a librarian in the British Museum's Department of Printed Books, working on the new General Catalogue. During World War II, he worked in the Naval section Hut 8 at the code-breaking establishment, Bletchley Park, translating Italian Naval codes.
The work situation was stressful and led to a nervous breakdown, for which he was treated by Rolf-Werner Kosterlitz. He returned to the Museum after the end of the War, and it was there that he met Tony Garrett (born 1929), who was to be his companion for the rest of his life.
Wilson's first publication was a collection of short stories, The Wrong Set (1949), followed quickly by the daring novel Hemlock and After, which was a great success, prompting invitations to lecture in Europe.
He worked as a reviewer, and in 1955 he resigned from the British Museum to write full-time (although his financial situation did not justify doing so) and moved to Suffolk.
From 1957 he gave lectures further afield, in Japan, Switzerland, Australia, and the USA. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1968, and received many literary honours in succeeding years. He was knighted in 1980, and was President of the Royal Society of Literature from 1983 to 1988. His remaining years were affected by ill health, and he died of a stroke at a nursing home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on 31 May 1991, aged 77.
His writing, which has a strongly satirical vein, expresses his concern with preserving a liberal humanistic outlook in the face of fashionable doctrinaire temptations. Several of his works were adapted for television. He was Professor of English Literature at the University of East Anglia from 1966 to 1978, and jointly helped to establish their creative writing course at masters level in 1970, which was then a groundbreaking initiative in the United Kingdom.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 2, 2014
A brilliant and extremely well written take on the life and works of Rudyard Kipling. Wilson's book is a fascinating combination of life of Kipling seen through the lens of his most important short stories, novels, poems and other literary output. Wilson's approach is thematic rather than strictly chronological which might be off-putting to those who are biography purists. I found it to be fresh take on the form of literary biography and enjoyed it though I did feel hampered at times by being less than a completist when it comes to having read Kipling's works. Still Wilson's work does an amazing job of putting his works, whether I had read them or not, into the frame work of Kipling's life and absolutely inspired me to want to read more Kipling. Recommended
October 31, 2021
The Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling: Thoughts
By Angus Wilson
The author, Angus Wilson, has told us much about Kipling and those around him. Yet, I feel that I do not know that more about the man. It was the times that Kipling lived, wrote, and responded to. It was the tail end of the age of “Gold, God, and Glory.” Rudyard Kipling was very much a man of that era.
His patriotism was that of a ‘white’ man in a very rainbow world. Kipling’s views were those of a WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) in a world where that very much meant something. The social order and hierarchy in Britain still mattered, a lot.
The Wilson explains this in some of Kipling’s works. Works that have not all stood the test of time. Yet, they are not quite ready to be viewed as period pieces, especially in a world still gripping the aftermath of the WASP culture.
It was interesting to learn that Kipling spent so little of his life in India. It is India, the place, the cultures, and the people that formed the basis for so much of his work. I feel like rereading the Jungle Books.
The author does give us some insights into many of Kipling’s stories. I plan on looking them up and reading some of them in the coming days, weeks, and months.
I reread and will share part of a poem that I like. You probably know it.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
This is the Kipling that I know, like, respect, and see as a period piece.
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
This can be a mantra for so many things in life – including business.
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
This is the community and the spirit of the WASP world that Kipling inhabited, shared, and wish to inspire in its growth. He wanted some of us to become men. I wish that we could all become a little more human.
It was a different era. We can learn from it, if we try. Remember that and read on….
Lino Matteo ©™
Twitter @Lino_Matteo
https://linomatteo.wordpress.com/2021...
By Angus Wilson
The author, Angus Wilson, has told us much about Kipling and those around him. Yet, I feel that I do not know that more about the man. It was the times that Kipling lived, wrote, and responded to. It was the tail end of the age of “Gold, God, and Glory.” Rudyard Kipling was very much a man of that era.
His patriotism was that of a ‘white’ man in a very rainbow world. Kipling’s views were those of a WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) in a world where that very much meant something. The social order and hierarchy in Britain still mattered, a lot.
The Wilson explains this in some of Kipling’s works. Works that have not all stood the test of time. Yet, they are not quite ready to be viewed as period pieces, especially in a world still gripping the aftermath of the WASP culture.
It was interesting to learn that Kipling spent so little of his life in India. It is India, the place, the cultures, and the people that formed the basis for so much of his work. I feel like rereading the Jungle Books.
The author does give us some insights into many of Kipling’s stories. I plan on looking them up and reading some of them in the coming days, weeks, and months.
I reread and will share part of a poem that I like. You probably know it.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
This is the Kipling that I know, like, respect, and see as a period piece.
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
This can be a mantra for so many things in life – including business.
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
This is the community and the spirit of the WASP world that Kipling inhabited, shared, and wish to inspire in its growth. He wanted some of us to become men. I wish that we could all become a little more human.
It was a different era. We can learn from it, if we try. Remember that and read on….
Lino Matteo ©™
Twitter @Lino_Matteo
https://linomatteo.wordpress.com/2021...
June 18, 2025
I loved the descriptions of his time in school. Decorating his study, testing the limits, the house and prefects and all.
Although I haven’t read much of Kipling’s work yet, there were summaries and commentary on his stories and the social context. I appreciated how the biographer points out the racism and classism in Kipling’s POV and doesn’t excuse it.
“The interrelation of the real world and the imagined in his art”
It was interesting to learn of Kipling beyond his India years, and to learn that most of the famous stories were written in Vermont and not anywhere exotic, just reminisces about his earlier travels.
The book does lay out all the contradictions and challenges with Kipling’s viewpoints and how they pervade his writing, including imperialism that follows him from England to South Africa and the well-traveled yet sheltered worldview that colors how he writes his characters and settings.
Some parts were interesting, other sections dragged. I do appreciate how you don’t have to have read any of Kipling’s work and the biographer goes through his different stories and how they corresponded to different points and outlooks of his life.
What did I learn about Kipling from this book?
He spent significant time living in America.
He loved his daughter and her death changed him forever.
He was way more conservative and racist than I expected, and was politically right leaning and Imperialist.
He was very popular during his lifetime.
He didn’t believe in spiritualism at all, even when his family encouraged him to try and reach his dead children.
He loved hanging out with children and telling them stories.
His wife was his social buffer and kept the house running. He never wanted her to feel like just the wife of the author.
Wolcott v Carrie!
“To suppose that Kipling‘s life would have been different had Wolcott lived…is greatly to misunderstand both Wolcott and Kipling, and more still such men in the age in which they lived.”
Although I haven’t read much of Kipling’s work yet, there were summaries and commentary on his stories and the social context. I appreciated how the biographer points out the racism and classism in Kipling’s POV and doesn’t excuse it.
“The interrelation of the real world and the imagined in his art”
It was interesting to learn of Kipling beyond his India years, and to learn that most of the famous stories were written in Vermont and not anywhere exotic, just reminisces about his earlier travels.
The book does lay out all the contradictions and challenges with Kipling’s viewpoints and how they pervade his writing, including imperialism that follows him from England to South Africa and the well-traveled yet sheltered worldview that colors how he writes his characters and settings.
Some parts were interesting, other sections dragged. I do appreciate how you don’t have to have read any of Kipling’s work and the biographer goes through his different stories and how they corresponded to different points and outlooks of his life.
What did I learn about Kipling from this book?
He spent significant time living in America.
He loved his daughter and her death changed him forever.
He was way more conservative and racist than I expected, and was politically right leaning and Imperialist.
He was very popular during his lifetime.
He didn’t believe in spiritualism at all, even when his family encouraged him to try and reach his dead children.
He loved hanging out with children and telling them stories.
His wife was his social buffer and kept the house running. He never wanted her to feel like just the wife of the author.
Wolcott v Carrie!
“To suppose that Kipling‘s life would have been different had Wolcott lived…is greatly to misunderstand both Wolcott and Kipling, and more still such men in the age in which they lived.”
July 13, 2010
I like some of Kipling's work and think Kim is a masterpiece, and I was curious enough about its author to get this literary biography by Angus Wilson out of the library and read it. I found the author's style rather plodding, but the book still gives an insightful description into the life of a very strange man, a man driven as much by dreams of imperial glory as of his own fame, a man who might have been a true literary genius - though perhaps less famous than he ended up being - if he had overcome his own inner demons. Recommended to fans of Kipling (or Angus Wilson) only.
March 9, 2011
A life of a great author told through the transmutation of his experience into fictional form.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews