King – a housemaster who sometimes bedevils the boys 'generally held to be based on W. Prout – a housemaster in charge of Stalky's House, the victim of many of their deceptions Based on Cormell Price, headmaster of the United Services College. Bates - the Headmaster, always wise and usually firm. William 'Turkey' M'Turk (pronounced McTurk he comes from a landed estate in Ireland).Reginald (or Reggie) Beetle, based on Kipling himself.Stalky later turns out to be brilliant in battle. He knows that he is destined for Sandhurst, so he does not care about many academic subjects. 'Stalky' (real name: Arthur Lionel Corkran ).George Orwell wrote in 1940 that Stalky had 'had an immense influence on boys' literature'. It is implied that the mischievous pranks of the boys in school were splendid training for their role as instruments of the British Empire. The final chapter recounts events in the lives of the boys when, as adults, they are in the armed forces in India.

For example, Beetle pokes fun at an earlier, more earnest, boys' book, Eric, or, Little by Little, thus flaunting his more worldly outlook. The stories have elements of revenge, the macabre, bullying and violence, and hints about sex, making them far from childish or idealised. It is set at a school dubbed 'the College' or 'the Coll.', which is based on the actual United Services College that Kipling attended as a boy. It was first published in 1899 after the stories had appeared in magazines during the previous two years. It is a collection of school stories whose three juvenile protagonists display a know-it-all, cynical outlook on patriotism and authority. is a novel by Rudyard Kipling about adolescent boys at a British boarding school.

Kipling stalky