The Irish Guards in the Great War: The Second Battalion

This is the forgotten masterpiece of Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. It is the result of five and a half years' detailed research. It was out of print for many years. "This will be my great work . . . It is done with agony and bloody sweat." First published in 1923, Kipling's little-known masterpiece is an utterly individual contribution to the art of regimental history. In August 1914 Kipling's son John, not yet 17, volunteered for a commission in the army, but being underage and with poor sight, was initially refused. His father's friendship with Lord Roberts was used to gain him a commission in the Irish Guards. John Kipling's battalion, the 2nd, was at once deployed in the costly battle of Loos, where he was among the earliest casualties. Kipling was devastated, and set about writing a regimental history as a monument to his son's service. The result of five years of laborious research, it is both a military and a literary masterpiece. Kipling employed his exceptional descriptive powers, his empathy with fighting men, and his habitual passion for detail to wonderful effect. Long out of print, the two volumes of The Irish Guards in the Great War, of which this is volume two, are republished in lavish, illustrated editions complete with the original maps and appendices.

Rudyard Kipling was born in 1865 in Bombay. After his schooling he returned to India in 1882 where he spent seven years as a journalist and became well known for his light satirical verse. Returning to London in 1889 he soon gained an international reputation, and in 1907 won the Nobel Prize for literature. Among his most famous works are the Just So Stories and the two Jungle Books.