Rudyard Kipling was one of the most versatile writers of the Victorian age – a journalist, storyteller, historian and poet. One of the major subjects of his poetry was the British army and the way it waged its campaigns during Queen Victoria’s ‘little wars’, and it is this aspect of his writing that Edward Erickson explores in this absorbing and perceptive study.

Kipling’s military poems offer insights into the profession of arms and how soldiers were trained and fought in distant expeditionary campaigns – they bring to life the world of the Victorian soldier in the most evocative way. Although not a soldier himself, Kipling wrote about timeless themes of military and wartime service, the experience of combat, unit cohesion and individual courage.

A Soldier’s Kipling is an original contribution to the understanding of Kipling’s work and his times, and it should lead to a fresh appreciation of a facet of his writing that has not been focused on so closely before.