The Long Recessional
  • Published: 5 November 2019
  • ISBN: 9780141990880
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $36.99

The Long Recessional

The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling

Formats & editions
EBook
1 Aug 2019
Paperback
5 Nov 2019
Tr. Paperback
15 Feb 2003
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A brilliantly illuminating study of the writer who embodied the spirit of his country a hundred years ago as closely as Shakespeare had done 300 years before

David Gilmour's superb biography of Rudyard Kipling is the first to show how the life and work of the great writer mirrored the trajectory of the British Empire, from its zenith to its final decades. His famous poem 'Recessional' celebrated Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, but his last poems warned of the dangers of Nazism, and in those intervening years Kipling, himself an icon of the Empire, was transformed from an apostle of success to a prophet of national decline. As Gilmour makes clear, Kipling's mysterious stories and poetry deeply influenced the way his readers saw both themselves and the British Empire, and they continue to challenge us today.
  • Published: 5 November 2019
  • ISBN: 9780141990880
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $36.99
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About the author

David Gilmour

David Gilmour's books include the prize-winning biographies, Curzon and The Last Leopard: A Life of Giuseppe di Lampedusa. He is also the author of Cities of Spain, The Hungry Generations and several works on the politics of Spain and the Middle East. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a former Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford, he is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books.

portrait photo of David Gilmour

Also by David Gilmour

Curzon
The British in India
The Pursuit of Italy
The Film Club
The Ruling Caste
See all

Praise for The Long Recessional

The best Kipling biogaphy yet written ... Gilmour's account of this driven man shines with intelligence

J. B. Pick, Scotsman

An enthralling biography of a mind ... essential reading for anyone who cares about how a writer finds, and passionately lives, his subject

Ruth Padel, Daily Telegraph

A fine, fair and generous work ... Gilmour's celebrated life of Curzon demonstrated his mastery of imperial nuance and esoteric character, and he brings to this book just the right combination of empathy, distaste and fastidious detachment

Jan Morris, New Statesman
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