- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd; New edition edition (1 Aug 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0850528593
- ISBN-13: 978-0850528596
- Product Dimensions: 2.4 x 1.6 x 0.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 796,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
My Boy Jack?
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Product Description
Product Description
Published now for the first time in paperback My Boy Jack is the extraordinary story of Kipling's search for his son. John Kipling was reported missing in the Battle of Loos on the Western Front in 1915. His father, Rudyard, had pulled strings to get his myopic son into the firing line. Devastated at the loss of his only son, Rudyard undertook the sad mission to find John's grave but tragically never succeeded in his quest. Yet in 1992, 77 years later, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission took the exceptional step of naming a previously unknown soldier buried in St. Mary's ADS CWGC Cemetery in France as John Kipling. The authors, Tonie and Valmai Holt, intrigued by this unusual and newsworthy action felt drawn into taking the investigation further, to examine the evidence and to question the identification. The result of their research, much of it from previously unpublished sources, found John to be likeable, humorous, extraordinarily unspoilt by his father's fame and a remarkably good and, in his final hours, brave young officer. The book also reveals the devastating effect that John's death had on his father and on his subsequent work
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
67 of 67 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The English writer Rudyard Kipling spent the last twenty years of his life in an obsessive, fruitless search for his only son John (Jack), who had gone missing during the Battle of Loos in 1915. John was barely 18, had only got into the army through his father's influence (he was medically unfit), and was last seen struggling through the carnage, shot in the mouth and weeping. His body was never found.
Major and Mrs Holt are renowned experts on the First World War and this is probably their best book yet. (The title is taken from Kipling's poem 'Have You News of My Boy Jack?') Many biographies of Rudyard Kipling describe the loss of John, but this is the first biography of John himself. Through painstaking and meticulous research, the Holts have built a detailed reconstruction of John's life and character. The story is told with honesty and compassion, but without lapsing into sentimentality. It is fascinating, compulsively readable, and deeply touching. The book also contains new evidence to suggest that, sadly, the recent "discovery" of John Kipling's grave is almost certainly erroneous.
Those who have read other books by Major and Mrs Holt will be familiar with their warm but down-to-earth narrative style. In this case, however, they have not only written a first class biography of a tragic victim of the Great War, they have, in some small measure, given John Kipling his life back. -- Rebecca Mazonowicz (author of 'This Wretched Splendour')
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book really moved me. Im fascinated by Rudyard Kipling and this gives a very small insight into the genius mind of Mr Kipling. Very sad tale of being a parent and war.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful, poignant, tragi-comic book, even for those who are not (yet) Kipling fans. I dislike and try to avoid cliches, but once started, I found it difficult to put down
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