A 21st-century reader might find a parable in this disturbing Kipling poem, in which a drowned man is dehumanised and has become a displaced ‘thing’
March 2024
Jungle Book review – Kipling’s man-cub tale as you’ve never seen it before
Avant garde director Robert Wilson’s adaptation of the classic tale prioritises surreal setups and atmosphere over family friendly narrative
February 2024
Rare Jungle Book painting to go on show at Kipling’s home
The Return of the Buffalo Herd, by teenage prodigies Edward and Charles Detmold, can be seen at Bateman’s after conservation
January 2024
The Jungle Book Reimagined: how an eight-year-old girl helped reinvent a classic
UK choreographer Akram Khan planned his new show while working from home, with his daughter drawing in the corner. She overheard his meetings – and had some notes
December 2021
Alan Bennett dedicates Kipling poem A Dead Statesman to Boris Johnson
The playwright’s annual diary excerpt criticises the prime minister and Donald Trump and recalls an encounter with Philip Roth
November 2021
Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo: Rudyard Kipling’s own sketches of the Jungle Book cast revealed
Until recently, drawings made to help shape the characters could only be seen in the British Library. Now they will feature in a new edition
June 2021
English Heritage recognises Blyton and Kipling’s racism – but blue plaques to stay
Blue plaques left unchanged, but charity website details Blyton’s ‘old-fashioned xenophobia’ and Kipling’s ‘imperialist sentiments’
April 2021
How the Just So Stories were Made by John Batchelor review – an origin story of origin stories
A scrupulous account of the brilliance and family tragedy that lies behind Kipling’s joyful collection of animal stories
March 2021
'We are guests on Earth': Akram Khan to stage The Jungle Book as climate crisis tale
Choreographer’s new version, to be performed at Leicester’s Curve in 2022, reinvents Kipling’s Mowgli as a climate refugee
April 2019
The Jungle Book review – riotous show gets into the swing of Kipling
The tales of Mowgli, Baloo and Bagheera are inventively staged with integrated sign language and a community cast
January 2019
The Wall by John Lanchester review – ‘The Others are coming’
From Brexit to migration, this masterly climate change dystopia explores contemporary fears with a blend of realism and metaphor
October 2018
Unseen tales reveal the young Rudyard Kipling honing his skills
The Jungle Book author’s vivid early stories from India are being published, many for the first time
September 2018
On the jungle trail: revisiting Kipling's children's classic
Katherine Rundell was thrilled by the idea of plunging back into the world of Mowgli, Bagheera and Mother Wolf ... but could she create a prequel to The Jungle Book without killing the magic?
August 2018
Brief letters
Fair trade cocaine wouldn’t delight dealers
Brief letters: Middle-class cocaine use | Black photographers in Vogue | Maya Angelou and Rudyard Kipling | The Silk Roads | Whale-dolphin hybrid
July 2018
Even Rudyard Kipling felt iffy about If
Letters: thoughts from John Anzani, Richard Maidment and Mike Wright following the decision to erase Rudyard Kipling’s poem, If, from a display at the University of Manchester
We can’t paint over our racist past
Letters: Manchester university students defacing a Kipling poem draws mixed responses from readers
Manchester University students paint over Rudyard Kipling mural
Students replace poem If by ‘well-known racist’ with Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise
February 2018
Book clinic
Book clinic: recommended literary page-turners
This week, our expert suggests a selection of books to rekindle the joy of reading in even the most battle-hardened litterateur
December 2017
The Guardian Books podcast
Neil Gaiman on Rudyard Kipling's The Gardener – short story podcast
In this instalment of our seasonal short story special, we have Neil Gaiman share why he loves Kipling’s melancholy story, which is then read by actor Marion Bailey
November 2017
Top 10s
Top 10 talking animals in books
From Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat to Franz Kafka’s ‘Ungeziefer’, linguistically gifted beasts have made for some of the most luminous characters in fiction
