Dear Mr Stocqueler,
Many thanks for your e-mail about the Sunday Telegraph's article about the
discovery of "Scylla and Charybdis". It was a fascinating article! If you
are able to visit London in early April (7) the Kipling Society is holding a
Stalky Conference, when the story will be read for the first time by Dr
Lewins and other speakers will talk about the contemporary scene. I have
attached our flier for the event, which gives more details, in case you are
interested.
With best wishes,
Jane Keskar
Honorary Secretary
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dom" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 2:05 PM
Subject: Stalky and Co.
> The Sunday Telegraph (Feb 22nd 2004) has a story about the missing chapter
> of Stalky and Co being found in a school library.
>
> "Dr Lewins, who has transcribed the work for publication in April,
believes
> that the find is "very significant" and says that it is attracting
worldwide
> interest.
>
> The new chapter describes Stalky, the cunning ringleader, as having
> "dancing" eyes and an "elastic step". His friends are McTurk, an Irish boy
> with dark hair and long lashes, and Beetle, a large, hairy, bespectacled
boy
> who acted as caddy for the other two boys.
>
> Beetle is widely thought to be based on Kipling, who felt himself to be
> unattractive and easily squashed.
>
> The chapter is called Scylla and Charybdis - the names of two bunkers on
the
> golf course where the schoolboys spy on an old man in a red jacket. The
boys
> observe the man replacing golf balls that he has knocked into the rough
with
> new ones from his pockets.
>
> They collect the balls, but are reprimanded by the club secretary for
> stealing them - until they reveal that the major has been cheating.
>
> Kipling liked the golf course but not the players on it. In the new
chapter,
> he writes about the "cads" who played golf dressed in a "fearful
combination
> of heather-mixture stockings, white spats, orange boots and elephant's-end
> knickerbockers".
>
> The manuscript reveals the author's eccentric handwriting style that forms
a
> cone shape on the page as the right hand margin gets bigger.
>
> It is not clear why Kipling dropped the chapter from the final version of
> his book, but the story, which begins with verve, peters out as though he
> did not know how to finish it.
>
> The manuscript was given by the Kipling Estate to the United Services
> College after he died in January 1936. It was acquired by Haileybury
School
> in 1962 when it merged with the United Services College and lodged in the
> archives, where it remained unnoticed.
>
> Andrew Hamblin, the archivist, knew that there were a few unpublished
pages
> by Kipling there, but it was an encounter with Dr Lewins at a Kipling
> Society dinner that led the Cambridge don to investigate further.
>
> Dr Lewins said: "The real surprise was that it was not just three pages of
> notes but 10 and an entirely new story."
>
> The story is based on the years Kipling spent as a schoolboy at the United
> Services College at Westward Ho!, Devon."
>
> Best regards,
>
> Dom Stocqueler
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