Towards Armageddon

Abstract

In Puck of Pook’s Hill Parnesius and Una discuss families. Parnesius recalls how his father would tell his children to make less noise, and then join them in a wild romp: ‘“Fathers can — if they like,” said Una, her eyes dancing.’ Kipling certainly could; he always enjoyed the company of children, and not only of his own. But more rapidly than Dan and Una, John and Elsie were growing up. In September 1907, at the age of ten, John began school at St Aubyn’s in Rottingdean, where his great-aunt Georgie Burne-Jones still lived. Kipling had not forgotten his own unhappiness in his first months at school, and he felt the pain of separation keenly. His letters reveal a man desperate to express his love in a way acceptable to his son, and to himself, ever careful not to put an evil eye on their relationship by celebrating it too openly. They cajole, praise and caution a boy who was not especially gifted: slow to learn, but reasonably diligent; short-sighted, like his father, but gradually finding himself in games. Despite his own lack of sporting prowess, Kipling bowled to him in the nets, and even, when John was away, admitted to a plaintive wish that he had someone to drag him out for ‘footer’.