1. The House of Desolation

In 1871, when Trix was less than three years old and Rudyard was just six, they were left without preparation or explanation to board with strangers in Southern England while their parents returned to Bombay, India. The House of Desolation refers to a time and a place—the six traumatic childhood years Trix and Rudyard spent as “Raj orphans” at Lorne Lodge (the appropriately named home of the cruel care-taking family). Rudyard wrote about this childhood misery in a short story, “Baa, Baa, Blacksheep,” and in his autobiography Something About Myself, and Trix wrote about it as well in a memoir, “Through Judy’s Eyes.” The children’s chief caretaker, called Aunty Rosa, encouraged Trix to sing, act, and recite while punishing and often beating Rudyard for showing off. She allowed her brutish son, Harry to bully Rudyard and to abuse Trix. Rudyard and Trix protected and comforted each other during this lonely childhood, where their only other companions were stories read from books and supplied by their own lively imaginations. Trix was Rudyard’s earliest inspiration and audience.