Customer Reviews

My Boy Jack

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Although born in England, I knew very little about Rudyard Kipling. This book covers Kipling's life from childhood thru death and shows how his character influenced his only son into joining the Irish Guards at the beginning of the Great War. His son was killed on his first day in combat and his body never recovered. Now, 77 years later, they think they have found him - or have they ? All the evidence is presented for the reader to decide. A good read.

Tonie and Valmai Holt's "My Boy Jack?" tries to be several things at once. It is nominally the story of the search for John "Jack" Kipling, the only son of famous British author Rudyard Kipling, who went missing in action in World War I. It is something of a biography of John Kipling's short life, and inevitably, it becomes a compressed biography of the famous father, his family, and his writing career.

Of these objectives, the search for John Kipling has a certain amount of mystery attached to it. Kipling, a lieutenant in the Irish Guards, went missing during his first combat action, at Loos in September 1915. Fellow soldiers who were interviewed by the Kiplings during the war suggested that John carried out his duties bravely, but gave conflicting versions of his fate. Long after the war, the British Graves Commission announced that his grave had been identified. It is the comprehensive and even-handed review of this announcement and the supporting documentation by the authors that strikes at the heart of the mystery of John's fate and may be the most worthwhile portion of the book.

Of the other objectives, John Kipling was only just 18 when he went missing. His childhood and schooling are inevitably imbedded in the larger narrative of his immediate family, in turn much driven by the long and largely successful career of Rudyard Kipling as an author of short stories, novels, and poems, and as an advocate of the British Empire. The extended biography of Rudyard Kipling places the father, the son, and the family in the context of their times. Those who saw and enjoyed the TV movie "My Boy Jack" may enjoy a more extended look at the Kiplings. The Holts capture the essentials of the Kiplings and touch both the triumphs and the controversies. However, any comprehensive biography of Rudyard Kipling must inevitably include a great deal of literary criticism, which the Holts do not attempt.

This 2007 edition of "My Boy Jack" includes additional material not presented in the 1998 and 2001 versions. It includes a nice selection of photographs. It is highly recommended as a long look at the impact of a missing young soldier on the lives of his family, in a war where nearly half of the British war dead had no known final resting place.

I admit I did not know much about Rudyard Kipling, but after seeing the film "My Boy Jack" I wanted to learn to more.
This book was so beautifully written, I actually couldn't put the book down and had it read in about 3 days.
I not only learned a great deal about Rudyard but I also learned a great deal about history. Whether you just love to read or love history, I highly recommend this book.

When I watched "My Boy Jack" on PBS, I knew nothing of Rudyard Kipling's life. His poems were mandatory reading in school and I enjoyed them very much but nothing was taught of his personal life. The story of his son John, was so moving and heart wrenching that I immediately bought the DVD and searched for a book that would tell the whole story of Kipling and his son. I chose "My Boy Jack?" as the best book to do just that. It is a thoroughly researched and interesting volume of Kipling, his family and the search for John's body.

Of course, I would have loved it more if there was a Kindle edition.