Tuesday, 25 March 2025

Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill

 Glad I've read it, as it fits in with my love of stories of English faerie, and Kipling's Puck is definitely in that category. Puck is a magic spirit older than Britain who is accidentally summoned by three children and conjures up figures from the past to tell them stories about these isles. It's charming, but very twee and Victorian. All the characters are bold, faithful and perfect gentlemen, and there's never anything sordid or dishonourable. Norman and Saxons have mutual respect for each other, the Romans are jolly sporting to the Britons, and even when some Saxons are captured by Danes and turned into galley-slaves, everyone gets on, they go to Africa together, kill a gorilla that is terrorising the natives, become incredibly rich when they are showered with gold, and then get dropped home on the Kent coast on the way back to enjoy their share of the spoils. 

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