My dh put his foot down yesterday and ordered me to bed. I think he is worried about my cold turning into something worse. The children uniformly agreed with him.
I made notes on my wip. This is slightly annoying as I did want my first draft done TODAY. But I have also realised several things that need to be incorporated into it. So perhaps the enforced rest is doing me good.
In the meantime, I have been reading Kipling Sahib about Kipling and the making of Modern India by Charles Allen. It is interesting from a novelist's point of view to see how he grew as a writer and where he took his inspiration from. It is also far too facile to simply dismiss Kipling as an Imperialist. My favourite Kipling stories are the first Jungle Book and Just So Stories. I was interested to learn more about Kipling after seeing the drama My Boy Jack. Some of Kipling's early troubles and his own myopia probably contributed to his pulling of strings with his son.
Kipling's early life does remain shrouded somewhat in mystery as he did attempt to burn all private correspondence, diaries etc. He wanted to be judged on his work.
He called his muse -- his private deamon. And Kipling did have such a wonderful way of conjuring up pictures with words.
Anyway, the world Kipling travelled in as a young man is fascinating. And I do recommend the book for anyone interested in Kipling or that period in India. I suspect some of my fasicnation with that period of in India stems from reading MM Kaye's Far Pavillions all those years ago...
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