How does the man who gave us the talking animals of The Jungle Book also write one of the most unapologetic anthems of British imperialism? The answer lies in a life perpetually torn between two worlds, beginning with a childhood trauma so severe it forged his entire imagination.

This episode unpacks the triumphs and devastating tragedies of Rudyard Kipling, from an idyllic immersion in Bombay to the abuse of the ‘House of Desolation,’ through his surprising American years, to the heartbreaking loss that shattered his worldview. We neutrally examine his politics, his genius, and why his legacy remains so fiercely contested.

• How constant interrogation by an abusive caretaker taught him to construct stories as a survival tactic
• The unexpected truth that The Jungle Book was written in a freezing seven-by-eight-foot room in snowbound Vermont
• His controversial works including ‘The White Man’s Burden,’ and why he ordered the swastika removed from his book covers once the Nazis co-opted it
• The catastrophic guilt of pulling strings to send his visually impaired son John to die at the Battle of Loos
• The Orwell and Eliot debate over his legacy, and the distorted historical record around General Dyer and the ‘man who saved India’ myth