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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Rudyard Kipling
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(1865–1936) Author whose somewhat jingoistic views on empire prejudiced his reputation in the mid-20C but who is now increasingly appreciated as a distinctly original poet and brilliant prose writer, particularly for children. Born in India, he was sent to a boarding school in England (described in *Stalky & Co) and worked from 1882 as a journalist in Lahore (the setting of *Kim). He published many short stories before returning to England in 1889. His growing reputation was enhanced by Barrack-Room Ballads (1892), a collection of lively poems in a soldier's vernacular (it included *Mandalay.
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His best books for children came out in the next ten years – The *Jungle Books and The *Just So Stories. *If, one of the most popular poems in the language, was published in 1910. By now he seemed the nation's unofficial laureate, serving for example as literary adviser to the Imperial *War Graves Commission. From 1902 he lived at Bateman's in East Sussex (24km/15m NW of Hastings), which is kept as a museum. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1907.
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