Rosemary Sutcliff wrote a monograph about the British writer  of the Just So stories, Rudyard Kipling, who was a major influence on her fiction writing for children, young adults and adults. She wrote in the introduction to the book that she had loved Kipling ever since she could remember.

‘My schooling began late, owing to a childhood illness, and ended when I was only fourteen, owing to my entire lack of interest in being educated. But I showed signs of being able to paint, and so  from school I went to art school, trained hard, and eventually became a professional miniature painter. I did not start to write until the end of the War, but now I have switched completely from one medium to the other, and it is several years since I last touched paint.’ Of the Kipling book she said, ‘My reason for writing this monograph will be obvious to anyone who reads it: I have loved Kipling for as long as I can remember.’

See here for an article Rosemary Sutcliff wrote about Kipling in 1965.