Here are the quotations for the coming week (Sept 27 to Oct 3)

1. …Three bold and experienced men - cool, confident, and dry when they

began; white, quivering, and wet when they finished their trick at those

terrible wheels - swung her over the great lift from Albuquerque to

Glorietta and beyond Springer, up and up to the Raton Tunnel on the State

line, whence they dropped rocking into La Junta, had sight of the

Arkansaw, and tore down the long slope to Dodge City …

 2.  He scratched with a twig on the earth. 'Look ! They should have come

in by Srinagar or Abbotabad.  Thatt  is their short road - down the rive by

Bunji and Astor. But they have made mischief in the West. So ' - he drew a

furrow from left to right - 'they march and they march away East to Leh (ah!

it is cold there) and down the Indus to Hanle … and then down, you see, to

Bushahr and Chini valley…

 3.  'We went on - forty, fifty miles a day, for days on end - we three braves.

And how a great tall Indian a-horseback can carry his war bonnet at a

canter through thick timber without brushing a feather beats me ! My silly

head was banged often enough by low branches, but they slipped through

like running elks…'

The sources of the last set of extracts are as follows:

1.   (upon a hot night, she weeping and calling for food, we came to a well,

and I bade her sit upon the kerb, and thrust her in...)  This is from "Little

Tobrah" in  Life's Handicap.

2,  ('Be quick', said Athira; and Suket Singh was quick; but Athira was

quick no longer....)  This is from "Through the Fire" in  Life's Handicap.

3.  (…an instant later, by the tone of Spurstow's voice calling upon them to

enter, the men knew what had happened. There was no need to wake

him...)  This is from "At the End of the Passage" in  Life's Handicap.

In the New Readers' Guide we have just published notes by Philip

Holberton on "The Last Rhyme of True Thomas"   On the Kipling in Schools page we have also begun to publish some Just So tales from Prettygate Junior School in Essex.

We have also created a new Facebook page for the Society, at

"https://www.facebook.com/kiplingsociety/info?tab=page_info"
This is very much work in progress. Any comments, on or off line, will be much appreciated.

Finally, and most importantly, Professor Harry Rickets is delivering our Stamer Smith Memorial Lecture at the Keep at the University of Sussex, in association wiith the Department of English, to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Kipling's birth.  He has called his talk: What can Rudyard Kipling do for you ? 

He will discuss what reading Kipling has come to mean to him, with the opportunities to dive into the many stories and poems written in Kipling’s hand and held in the Sussex Special Collections.

Harry Ricketts, poet, literary critic and Kipling biographer, is Professor of English Literature at Victoria University in New Zealand.  His books include the acclaimed biography of Rudyard Kipling ‘The Unforgiving Minute’ (1999) and ‘Strange Meetings, a study of English writers and their intertwining relationships during the First World War.’

Good wishes to all

John R