The Drums of the Fore and Aft (Unabridged)

Written by Rudyard Kipling

Narrated by Robin Nixon

First published as No. 6 in the Indian Railway Library as Wee Willie Winkie and Other Child Stories in 1889 and collected in Wee Willie Winkie and Other Stories in 1895, and in numerous subsequent reprints of that collection.
An untried British regiment is sent to the front in a border war, and finds itself faced by a fanatical band of Muslim fighters, powerful hairy men armed with long knives. The British are driven back and retreat in panic and confusion, but two young drummer boys, Jakin and Lew, are left stranded on the battlefield between the armies. Fortified by blind courage and canteen rum, they decide to shame their regiment into returning to the battle. They march up and down across the front to the strains of "The British Grenadiers". The regiment turns back and advances on the enemy, this time successfully. The boys are killed, but the battle is won.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bookstream Audiobooks
• Release date: Nov 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9783991176947

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay (now known as Mumbai), India, but returned with his parents to England at the age of five. Among Kipling’s best-known works are The Jungle Book, Just So Stories, and the poems “Mandalay” and “Gunga Din.” Kipling was the first English-language writer to receive the Nobel Prize for literature (1907) and was among the youngest to have received the award.