Michael Korda on Rudyard Kipling's Kim

Go on, have a go! This is great stuff, Kipling at his best (and nobody is a better storyteller), and will tell you everything you need to know about what is now Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and a lot about India too. It has been filmed often, but no film does it justice—Kipling is sharper, shrewder, and less sentimental than any Hollywood filmmaker. Apart from having a rollicking good time—this is an adventure story that makes modern "adventure novelists" seem slow as tortoises—you will learn everything you need to know about why it's a bad idea to send troops to Afghanistan or to put pressure on Pakistan. If there's a copy in the White House, President Obama should be reading it now.