This unique anthology of Kipling's war stories and poems provides critical comment on the ineptitude of the British in the Boer War. Including such stories as "Barrack-Room Ballads," this work provides tales of courage and adventure, as well as shameful episodes of retreat and failure.



Kipling travelled to South Africa to help distribute the supplies bought with the funds raised by the song. His concern for the ordinary soldier had made him a hero out there, and he became guest-editor of the armed forces’ first ever newspaper, The Blomfontein Friend. Kipling realised the effect his patriotic fervour had on his reputation. Of the Absent-Minded Beggar, he said, “I would shoot the man who wrote it, if it would not be suicide”. Having witnessed the strains brought upon the troops through poor leadership and training at first hand in South Africa, Kipling’s later works show disillusion with the old aggressive Imperialism that had brought about the conflict.