Best known for The Jungle Book and the poem 'If ', Rudyard Kipling (1865 1936) became the first British recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. His considerable literary output, of both prose and poetry, reflects and interprets his experience of empire, and his great fame during his lifetime was matched by sales of his works. Widely regarded as Kipling's masterpiece, and described by him as 'a labour of great love', this picaresque, nostalgic novel was first published serially and then in the form of this book in 1901. Ten years in gestation, the novel reflects the vastness and diversity...

From the 'satiable curiosity of the elephant's child to the crab who played with the sea, from the ingenious invention of the alphabet to how the rhinoceros got its wrinkled skin, these stories of strange happenings in the High and Far-Off Times brim with life, fun and magic.

Have you ever wondered how the leopard got his spots? Or how the camel got his hump? Rudyard Kipling's witty and beautifully written stories explain these secrets and many more and introduce such memorable characters as the Elephant's Child, the Cat that Walked by Himself, and the Butterfly that Stamped.The illustrations by Rudyard Kipling contain puzzles and clues that add an extra dimension to the stories.