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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the fields near home could introduce you to the people who shaped them centuries ago?
Dan and Una are playing near their Sussex home when a scene from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream brings them face to face with Puck. This ancient countryside spirit opens their familiar world to visitors from England's past. Each arrives with a life to tell, not just a lesson to teach.
Rudyard Kipling's linked stories and poems move from Weland, a smith once worshipped as a god, to Parnesius and his service at Hadrian's Wall. Sir Richard Daltingridge tells of conquest and friendship; Kadmiel brings Jewish life in medieval England into view. Through these encounters, the children discover how different origins and loyalties shape the land they call home.
What you’ll discover
- Magic close to home Follow Puck as he brings distant centuries into the children's own Sussex countryside.
- Skill and fading powers Meet Weland in a tale of craftsmanship, service, and the passing of ancient gods.
- Duty on the frontier Stand with Parnesius at Hadrian's Wall, where friendship and loyalty face threats and struggles for power.
- Many lives, one land Discover knights, soldiers, craftsmen, and outsiders whose experiences give England's past a human face.
- Stories joined by poems Move through seafaring adventure and departing fairies, with poems linking individual lives to shared memory.
Who will love it
This book is for readers who love old tales of knights, pirates and Roman soldiers, and for anyone who enjoys English country settings and history told by the people who lived it.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A meadow opens into the past
- Kindness reaches a fallen god
- Fairness begins where conquest leaves wounds
- Custom gives power its limits
- Clear thinking guards the castle
- Friendship changes life on the frontier
- A proud builder learns to listen
- Many hands make a country
- Ordinary places hold connected lives
Who’s who
- PuckThe oldest spirit left in England, mischievous and kind, who gives the children the right to see their valley's past.
- DanA practical boy who loves facts, asks sharp questions, and often spots the real explanation behind old marvels.
- UnaDan's gentle sister, who feels for each visitor, grasps their feelings quickly, and wants the tales told in full.
- Sir Richard DalyngridgeA Norman knight who comes to love the Saxon valley he was given, and keeps Weland's sword.
- HughA Saxon novice and later knight, brave and wise, whose sword was made by a fallen god and sings.
- ParnesiusA young Roman centurion born in Britain, who holds Hadrian's Wall with his friend Pertinax.
- HobdenThe old hedger who is the children's friend, and whose family has lived in the valley for centuries.
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Puck of Pook's Hill in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Puck of Pook's Hill
by Rudyard Kipling · 1906
Two children act a play in a fairy ring, meet Puck, and are shown the England that lies under their own fields.
Easy read2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“After you have read Kipling's fifty or seventy-five best stories you realize that few men have written this many stories of this much merit, and that very few have written more and better stories.”
In short
What would you ask for if a fairy stepped out of the bushes on Midsummer Eve? Two children in Sussex, Dan and Una, act out a play by Shakespeare three times in a ring of dark grass.
Puck of Pook's Hill at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h3 h 10 min fast, 4 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 56,800 words
- Library level
- Easy short sentences, plain words
- First published
- 1906by Rudyard Kipling
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two children call up Puck in a fairy ring
The book opens on Midsummer Eve in a meadow called the Long Slip. Dan and Una act out a short version of A Midsummer Night's Dream three times in a fairy ring beside a millstream, with Pook's Hill rising behind them.
A small brown figure with pointed ears and a wide grin steps out of the alders. He is Puck, and he is delighted. By playing that play, on that night, in that place, the children have broken the Hills. Puck says the People of the Hills have left England and that he alone remains. He refuses to be called a fairy.
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Details
- First published
- 1906
- Language
- English
- Level
- Easy read
Cite this edition
Kipling, Rudyard. Puck of Pook's Hill. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/puck-of-pooks-hill.
Kipling, R. (2026). Puck of Pook's Hill. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/puck-of-pooks-hill (Original work published 1906)
Kipling, Rudyard. Puck of Pook's Hill. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/puck-of-pooks-hill.
@book{kipling2026puck,
author = {Kipling, Rudyard},
title = {Puck of Pook's Hill},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/puck-of-pooks-hill},
note = {First published 1906}
}
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What is Puck of Pook's Hill about?
It follows two children, Dan and Una, who meet Puck in a Sussex meadow. Puck calls up figures from the past, such as a Norman knight and a Roman officer, whose stories connect the children's countryside with England's wider history.
Who is Puck in Puck of Pook's Hill?
Puck is the last of the old spirits of England, often called the oldest Old Thing. He dislikes the word fairy. He is the same Puck as in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, and he guides the children through time.
Is Puck of Pook's Hill a true story?
The children and the fairy frame are made up, but many settings, events and customs come from real history, such as the Battle of Hastings, Hadrian's Wall and Magna Carta. It was published in 1906.
The author
Rudyard Kipling
1865–1936 · English novelist and poet
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) was an English writer and poet born in Bombay, India. He lived in India, England and the United States. He wrote The Jungle Book (1894), The Second Jungle Book (1895), Kim (1901) and Just So Stories (1902). He died in London in 1936.
“Hold fast! Hold fast to all I give you.”
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