August 2013: Rudyard Kipling's The Just So Stories for Little Children

This month we read Rudyard Kipling's collection of Just So Stories (published in 1902).  This includes the tale of "The Elephant's Child" which - perhaps above all others - recalls my own childhood and the pleasure of being read to at bedtime, and underlines the story-telling power of repetition and alliteration.  More than fifty years on I can still recall my favourite phrase - and my mother's too - and I am always looking for an opportunity to use it.  It's not easy trying to insert the comment "on the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever trees" into any conversation, but I can manage it occasionally.

The sounds and the rhythms of Kipling's writing are so essential to Just So Stories, as are the many new words that he creates especially to delight and to amuse and even to perplex, and so we also listened to an extract from "How the Leopard got his Spots" in an audiobook read by the unforgettable Johnny Morris.

There is so much humour and sheer playful inventiveness in this collection of stories, but there is sadness too. The "O My Best Beloved" referred to throughout the book and to whom the stories are addressed was Kipling's adored daughter, Josephine, who died of pneumonia aged 6 in 1899.  In 2010, a first edition of Kipling's The Jungle Book was discovered , complete with inscription from father to daughter "for whom it was written". http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/09/kipling-jungle-book-inscription

Kipling was and is world-famous: there is nothing to write here about him which hasn't already been written elsewhere.  His stories are an essential and familiar element of all our childhoods.  Sadly, however, his name is becoming disassociated from his most famous story.  A recent survey of schoolchildren found that they largely believed someone called Disney had written The Jungle Book.

With its powerful echoes of my own childhood, Just So Stories was a fitting book on which to end my association with Children's Classics for Adults.  It's been nearly three years since I first approached Bath Library with the idea of a book group to read classic children's books, and it's time for me to hand it over to someone else.  It's been a fantastic experience: I've been able to re-read favourite old books encompassing wonderful memories, and to experience a few books I've never read before, but best of all has been making friends with a wonderful group of  clever, knowledgeable and like-minded people and enjoying sharing the pleasure of reading.  Thanks to all.

The next meeting will be on Wednesday 2 October at 1015 am when we will be reading a selection of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle books (1920-1952).

Rudyard Kipling: inspiration for Rosemary Sutcliff's Eagle of the Ninth?

At our last meeting Isobel spoke about Rosemary Sutcliff's admiration for Rudyard Kipling.  Hannah remembered her mother having a book of Kipling's poems in which one of her favourites was "The Roman Centurion's Song" - first published in 1911 in a pamphlet called Three Poems, and immediately afterwards in A School History of England.  She wonders if this was one of Sutcliff's inspirations for The Eagle of the Ninth?  See what you think. The Roman Centurion's Song Roman Occupation of Britain, A.D. 300

LEGATE, I had the news last night - my cohort ordered home By ships to Portus Itius and thence by road to Rome. I've marched the companies aboard, the arms are stowed below: Now let another take my sword. Command me not to go! I've served in Britain forty years, from Vectis to the Wall, I have none other home than this, nor any life at all. Last night I did not understand, but, now the hour draws near That calls me to my native land, I feel that land is here. Here where men say my name was made, here where my work was done; Here where my dearest dead are laid - my wife - my wife and son; Here where time, custom, grief and toil, age, memory, service, love, Have rooted me in British soil. Ah, how can I remove? For me this land, that sea, these airs, those folk and fields suffice. What purple Southern pomp can match our changeful Northern skies, Black with December snows unshed or pearled with August haze - The clanging arch of steel-grey March, or June's long-lighted days? You'll follow widening Rhodanus till vine an olive lean Aslant before the sunny breeze that sweeps Nemausus clean To Arelate's triple gate; but let me linger on, Here where our stiff-necked British oaks confront Euroclydon! You'll take the old Aurelian Road through shore-descending pines Where, blue as any peacock's neck, the Tyrrhene Ocean shines. You'll go where laurel crowns are won, but -will you e'er forget The scent of hawthorn in the sun, or bracken in the wet? Let me work here for Britain's sake - at any task you will - A marsh to drain, a road to make or native troops to drill. Some Western camp (I know the Pict) or granite Border keep, Mid seas of heather derelict, where our old messmates sleep. Legate, I come to you in tears - My cohort ordered home! I've served in Britain forty years. What should I do in Rome? Here is my heart, my soul, my mind - the only life I know. I cannot leave it all behind. Command me not to go!

Our next meeting, What Katy Did and goldfish in Gamages

I was pleased to find a Ward Lock & Co edition of Susan Coolidge's What Katy Did on Bath Market yesterday.  Beautifully inscribed "Christmas 1923, from Dada to Muriel", its original purchase sticker is still inside the back cover, showing that it was bought from the famous department store A W Gamage Ltd of Holborn, London for two shillings and sixpence.  Gamages first opened in 1878 and became famous particularly for its stock of wonderful toys.  It finally closed in 1972.  In a letter dated 19 July 1922 to Elsie Kipling, his eldest surviving daughter, Rudyard Kipling wrote "I to Gamages in Holborn where, with everything else, they sell gold-fish."

Looking forward to our next meeting at Bath Library this coming Wednesday 7 September at 1030, when we will be discussing The Wind in the Willows.  The summer holidays mean that we'll still be missing a couple of regular members, but we look forward to seeing everyone again in October after we will have read The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff.