Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. «Plain Tales from the Hills» was his fi rst volume of prose fi ction. Vignettes of life in British India give vivid insights into Anglo-India at work and play, and into the character of the Indians themselves. Witty, wry, sometimes cynical, these tales with their brevity and concentration of effect are landmarks in the history of the short story as an art-form.