The greatest of all wars. As told by one of England's greatest poets. 'The Irish Guards In The Great War' is a classic of military history - Rudyard Kipling's memorable account of how one regiment fought from 1914-1918. Now Kipling's volumes on the First and Second Battalion are put together in one collection. This e-book edition features an introduction by the leading military writer Patrick Bishop. In 1915, on the third day of the Battle of Loos, Kipling’s beloved son John was shot in the head and killed. John had initially been rejected when he volunteered for service and it was only through Kipling’s intervention with an old friend, Lord Roberts, that John was able to join up with the Irish Guards. In John’s memory Kipling accepted an invitation from the Irish Guards to write the official account of their experiences in the First World War. The result is a classic of military history—a book that is all the more powerful for the deliberate spareness of Kipling's style and the tightness of the narrative focus. It is a book that takes the reader right into the brutal reality of life and death in the trenches—told through the exploits and tribulations of the Irish Guards. Kipling writes from the point of view of the battalions, using extracts from the Regimental Diaries, supplemented by private letters and documents and first-hand tales of the the men and their actions. Instead of attempting a broad and balanced narrative in the traditional style of official regimental historians, Kipling decided to stick to matters which directly touched the men’s lives. The result is a tale of courage and fortitude, the story of a regiment that endured terrible losses, but which also took the fight to the enemy, and never flagged in its will to win, nor lost sight of its own moral values even in the midst of a terrible war. Rudyard Kipling was a poet and novelist best-know for his tales of British soliders in India as well as children's classics such as 'The Jungle Book'. In 1907, he became the first English winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Patrick Bishop is a journalist and author. His books include 'Bomber Fighting Back 1940-1945' and 'Target Tirputz'. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher.
Author
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was a journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift". Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 41, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author." Kipling kept writing until the early 1930s, but at a slower pace and with much less success than before. On the night of 12 January 1936, Kipling suffered a haemorrhage in his small intestine. He underwent surgery, but died less than a week later on 18 January 1936 at the age of 70 of a perforated duodenal ulcer. Kipling's death had in fact previously been incorrectly announced in a magazine, to which he wrote, "I've just read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers."
