Rudyard Kipling was one of the most popular writers of prose and poetry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1907.Born in Bombay on 30th December 1865 both he and his sister were sent back to England when he was five, as was the custom of the British ruling elite in India. The ill-treatment and cruelty by the couple they boarded with in Portsmouth had one useful effect that Kipling himself suggested; it gave him an early impetus for a literary life.This was further enhanced by his return to India at the age of sixteen to work on a local paper. Not only did this result in him writing constantly but also gave him the opportunity to explore issues of identity and national allegiance which pervade much of his work.Whilst he is best remembered for his many classic children’s stories and a host of popular poems including ‘If….’ he is also regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story.