Ruskin Bond (19th May 1934) is an Indian author of British descent. Born in a military hospital in Kasauli, British India to British parents. Bond spent his early childhood in Jamnagar and was very close to his father who sadly died of jaundice when Ruskin was ten.
A keen writer as a child, Ruskin graduated in 1950 after winning several writing competitions in school including the Irwin Divinity Prize and the Hailey Literature Prize. He wrote one of his first short stories Untouchable when he was just 16 years old.
Following this, Bond moved to his aunt’s house in the Channel Islands for better prospects and stayed in the UK for two years. It was during his time in London he started writing his first novel The Room on the Roof, a semi-autobiographical story of an orphaned Anglo-Indian boy named Rusty. That novel won the John Llewellyn Rhys. After it was published Bond used the advance money to pay the sea passage back to India.
Most of his works are influenced by the life he lived in the hill stations at the foothills of the Himalayas where he spent his childhood. His first novel was written without a readership in mind, but his first book for children The Angry River had to be toned down to be suitable for children. On writing for children he says he is influenced by his lonely childhood, stating that writing helps him understand children better.
A writer for more than 50 years, Ruskin Bond has an extensive bibliography writing endless collections, anthologies, novels, novels for children and short stories. Here are some we recommend.
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