Puck of Pook's Hill

Written by Rudyard Kipling

Narrated by Peter Kenny

Kipling’s charming Puck of Pook’s Hill takes the listener on a journey through English history with a series of short, fantastical works. When two children happen across an ancient shrine, they unintentionally summon an impish sprite named Puck - also known as Robin Goodfellow. To their wonderment, the fairy conjures up the past, taking them on ten magical adventures: they visit Roman Britain and the legion guarding Hadrian’s Wall, the thirteenth-century court of King John, and Old England from the time of William the Conqueror. Here are stories of lost treasures, epic battles, mysterious cults and daring piracy. Interspersed with Kipling’s lyrical poetry, Puck of Pook’s Hill is a masterful and magical collection that will stir the imagination.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Naxos Audiobooks
• Release date: Jun 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781843798996

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English author and poet who began writing in India and shortly found his work celebrated in England. An extravagantly popular, but critically polarizing, figure even in his own lifetime, the author wrote several books for adults and children that have become classics, Kim, The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, Captains Courageous and others. Although taken to task by some critics for his frequently imperialistic stance, the author’s best work rises above his era’s politics. Kipling refused offers of both knighthood and the position of Poet Laureate, but was the first English author to receive the Nobel prize.

Reviews for Puck of Pook's Hill

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderfully vivid scenes from English history. aside from the first, the only fantasy element is that Puck introduces modern children to characters from various periods of English history

[thesmellofbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I adored this book till the last chapter.

[g026r · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There's a vague sense of Whiggish history to the tales which form the core of the work [The Sir Richard tales and the final tale, "The Treasure and the Law"], with a definite feel of progression from the pre-Norman Saxons through to Runnymede. (Which can be fun to contrast with the Toryism that runs through the tales, both these but particularly the Roman tales and their story of empire.)Pity about that final tale though, as I had until that point been describing the book as reminding me of a more engaging Scott, but without the anti-Semitism. It's still more engaging, though that certainly leaves a bit of a sour taste at the end of it all.

[thorold_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was fortunate enough to escape reading this as a child, so I could have the pleasure of reading it as an adult, directly after a visit to Kipling's house in Sussex (on a beautiful summer day, too). As the story is so intimately connected with the grounds of Bateman's and their immediate surroundings, I think that little bit of local knowledge, fresh in my mind, did really make the book much more enjoyable.Kipling's language is wonderful, as always, but the story in this case is a slightly awkward mixture of twee fairy story, historical adventure à-la-Walter-Scott, and didactic history lessons. The stirring patriotic poem that closes the book is likely to challenge the forbearance of even the most tolerant modern reader.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There are two things to note in this interesting collection of stories and poems written for children about the British struggle for nationhood. Firstly, considering the style, difficulty, and variety of the language Kipling uses in this book, how would (and do) modern children cope? At the time when it was first published, more than a hundred years ago, it appeared in Strand magazine as well as a separate publication for younger readers, presumably who were well enough versed in history and legends to understand the stories. Can the same be said today? And how many children nowadays go frolicking in the meadows, quoting Latin verses and reading poetry?The second thing to note is the imperialist mood of the stories - and Kipling was famous for this. The stories could easily have been blood-thirsty thrillers; they concern war, struggle, treachery, revenge, and yet retain a romantic mood. The figures of authority are the greatest of men, though we know really that they weren't. Would children's critical faculties be great enough to discern this? Or would reading Kipling inculcate a sense and desire for imperialism, and the idea that the British nation spirit is strong and desirable?

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Triggered to read it (this time) by Judith Tarr's Rite of Conquest - hers is the story of William the Conqueror with a large magical aspect to his life, and Puck (the first three stories, of Sir Richard) is the other major source of my knowledge of that period. An interesting difference in the way Tarr and Kipling handled magic (their facts matched just fine) - Tarr writes of an England where the Saxon variety of Christianity is suppressing and destroying magic and the Norman invasion is largely aimed at freeing the magic, while Kipling writes of an England full of magic and the Normans have to adjust to the oddity of it. Then of course I went on to read the other stories - the three Roman ones, Henry VII, and John (it's hard to mark the periods except by who was ruling at the time, even when that doesn't directly affect the story!). And of course now I need to reread Rewards and Fairies. I do love the stories - I remember the plots and events quite well, but when I reread there are all these neat little twists and clever wordings that have slipped my mind. Kipling was a wonderful wordsmith.

[melmoththelost · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was one of those books which started in a somewhat disappointing fashion but which largely got better either as Kipling got into his stride or as my ear got into his sometimes quite dreadfully archaic language. Or maybe I gave up thinking how naff it was and chucked in a few mental hey nonny nonnies of my own for the hell of it.There's no doubt about it - this book is terribly dated, or at least it's a book of its time in the way that the writings of H Rider Haggard and Sax Rohmer were, and it's difficult to blame either book or author for that. You really couldn't write children's books like this any more and that's probably A Good Thing.