This captivating portrait of the greatest writer of the Colonialist age, as told by himself, is the last work he wrote. Shedding light on both his life and his work, this charming autobiographical sketch opens with an account of his miserable early childhood, his time at school, and his beginnings as a journalist in India, where he first started to write. He describes how he felt on being published ("Lord ha’ mercy, this is none of I"), the writers he met, and the people he worked with. Most interestingly of all, Kipling recalls the books and incidents that inspired and shaped his many writings.