I didn’t get around to reading the source material for the films with the same name until recently and Kipling’s two collections of stories are not what I expected. I think a lot of people feel they’ve read the books because of the films, but, trust me, they often haven’t from their descriptions of the content. Go and check out the stories for yourself and you’ll see what I mean. The story of Mowgli that provides the backbone to the cartoon is told in fits and starts with other tales interwoven. Kipling’s is a much tougher, wilder world than the Disney version, much more like ‘nature red in tooth and claw’ that you would find in a real jungle. It also has an interesting historical context as Kipling is one of the writers most closely linked to the British Empire in India – that regime had something of a tiger quality in the way it ruled India. Maybe, unwittingly, Kipling is providing readers with a commentary on the locals finally getting free from a fearsome presence? Shere Khan the tiger is a child-stealing, livestock-eating menace to the village and Mowgli is the trickster who outwits him – a theme of The Jungle Books whenever Mowgli appears. It is a good reminder that no matter how beautiful they are, tigers are top predators and I certainly wouldn’t want to meet one in the wild!