This article was originally published by bbc.com:
At the height of his career Rudyard Kipling was Britain’s most popular writer. The first Briton to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, he remains the youngest ever winner.
Kipling was born in India in 1865 but sent to live near Portsmouth. “He was brought out of the colour and excitement of India, which he clearly loved, to the drabness of Southsea and foster parents who treated him badly,” says Kipling biographer Andrew Lycett.
As an adult Kipling travelled widely. But it was the sour years in Southsea that inspired his most famous story – The Jungle Book. Written in 1894 while Kipling was living in snowy Vermont, the tale was a phenomenal success.
Read the rest of the article here.