Happy Birthday Ruskin Bond: Ruskin Bond, one of India’s most-loved writers of children’s stories, has carefully curated a mixed bag of 25 of his most cherished stories in a new book, “All Time Favorites for Children”, (Puffin), interspersed with excellent and quirky artwork that will evoke a range of emotions, not only among the young but also across a spectrum of readers.
About Ruskin Bond famous books:
The collection brings together some of the evocative episodes from Bond’s life – iconic Rusty, eccentric Uncle Ken, the ubiquitous grandmother – and many other charming, endearing characters while also introducing us to a smattering of new ones that are sure to become firm favorites with readers. Heart-warming, funny and spirited, this is a must-have on every bookshelf!
The book, in fact, is the perfect complement to “A Song of India” released in July last to last year to mark the beginning of Bond’s 70-year writing career, in which he takes the reader back to 1951, his last year in Dehradun before he set sail for England and which later became the basis for his first novel, “The Room on the Roof”.
Happy Birthday Ruskin Bond: His childhood
Born in Kasauli (now in Himachal Pradesh) in 1934, Bond grew up in Jamnagar (Gujarat), Dehradun, New Delhi and Simla (now Shimla).
He did his schooling from Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, from where he graduated in 1950. He won several writing competitions in the school including the Irwin Divinity Prize and the Hailey Literature Prize. He wrote one of his first short stories,
“Untouchable”, at the age of sixteen in 1951.
“The Room on the Roof”, written when he was 17, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since than he has written over 500 short stories, essays and novellas (including “Vagrants in the Valley” and “A Flight of Pigeons”) and more than 40 books for children.
From a love of reading, comes writing: Ruskin Bond?
He received the Sahitya Akademi Award for English writing in India in 1993, the Padma Shri in 1999, and the Delhi government’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He lives in Landour, Mussoorie, with his extended family.
