Brilliant idea, Barry, although I think you will find, alas, that the English have nowhere near the same reverence for Kipling that the Scots have for Burns. As I understand it, some English folkies didn't think Peter Bellamy should be putting Kipling to music because Kipling was racist, imperialist, etc. I think his Kipling songs were the best work he ever did. Many of the tunes were traditional, but it was an act of genius to know the right tune for the right poem.

Kipling was a complicated man. He did suffer from racial prejudice, but he was often able to transcend it. Some of his early poems make me cringe, but some are absolute works of genius. I think Danny Deever, for example, ranks with anything ever written in English.

So, let's have a Kipling dinner. You'll have a hard time finding a butcher that will sell you mutton, though.

Edmund