A few years ago my friend Chris gave me a give of a collection of miniature books as a birtday gift. The set is entitled Tank Books: tales to take your breath away. They are beautifully presented in 50's style cigareete packets and include works by some of the great. I started with Rudyard Kipling “The Man who would be King”, “The Phantom ’Rickshaw” and “Black Jack”
I had never read any Kipling and in fact had a certain bias against the author. I vaguely remeber his being described as anti Irish independence in history class. That said “The Man who would be King” was a fantastic film and much to my delight a equally fantastic novella. The two other short stories are equally enjoyable. "...Rickshaw" is an old fashioned ghost story and “Black Jack” a tale of plot and counter plot in a military barracks. All three stories are very evocative of The Raj with which Kipling was so familiar.
BTW I did some research and Kipling became virulently anti-Irish after the 1916 Easter rising, which is somewhat paradoxically as many of his protagonists are Irish or half Irish.
