BOOK REVIEW / Recent paperbacks: Baa Baa Black Sheep - David Malouf: Chatto & Windus, pounds 8.99
In this libretto (for an opera that will be premiered at The Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham on 3 July) David Malouf makes a resonant whole out of various parts of Rudyard Kipling's oeuvre. The miserable young hero of the story Baa Baa Black Sheep - which was based on Kipling's own childhood experiences of being sent away from his family in India to school in England - escapes in his imagination to the glorious world of the Jungle Book. Malouf's work elegantly illuminates the way that Kipling, so often seen as a spokesperson for the Establishment, was actually most comfortable and most powerful when siding with the outsider.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies