For the modern reader of Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads - among the most enduringly popular poems ever published in England - some explanation of their contemporary expressions and allusions and their military context is necessary if he is to appreciate them in their full glory. John Whitehead, critic and biographer who himself served with the Indian Army in Burma, has provided this in full measure in his entertaining and scholarly Introduction and comprehensive textual Notes. This Centenary Edition of the ballads is unlikely ever to be superseded.