Kim by Rudyard Kipling

My dad gave me this book when I was about eight years old. I remember struggling to read it, and it did take me a couple of years before I managed it. Rereading now, I’m amazed that I managed it even then! It’s a fascinating insight not into India so much as into the attitudes of the British and colonists. Kipling is wordy and difficult for the modern day reader, used now to plainspeak and plot driven stories. The book itself doesn’t actually have much in the way of plot – the child is recruited by the British rulers as a messenger/spy in their battle to stop the Russians gaining a foothold in Afghanistan. He travels through India as a disciple to a Buddhist lama gathering and disseminating information along the way. The real joy of this book is the characterization, with wonderful rough diamond horse traders and eccentric lamas and bumbling yet somehow highly effective spy masters who can take on any disguise and speak any native dialect. It’s harder work than a modern novel, but a classic.