Rudyard Kipling 
Puck of Pook’s Hill 

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an enthusiastic proponent of British imperialism and writer of poetry, short stories and novels. He was also the first English-language author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. Born in Bombay, India, Kipling was taken by his family to England when he was five years old. These contrasting environments preserved in the author nostalgia for the Eden-like setting of India, where he recalled family and friendly local servants doting upon him, and which set the stage for his popular tales like ‘The Jungle Book’. Written while he was living in the lush, unspoiled countryside of Sussex in 1906, ‘Puck of Pook’s Hill’ tells a series of stories on the history of England through the voice of the Shakespearean elf, Puck. Puck appears to two children – Dan and Una – as they are playing in a meadow near their home, and recounts tales from the past 2000 years, much to the children’s delight.