A new anthology, "Writing for My Life", released on Monday brings together some of the most exemplary stories, essays, poems and memories by celebrated award-winning author Ruskin Bond.
The book, aptly titled "Writing for My Life: The Very Best of Ruskin", is published by Penguin Random House India (PRHI). It comes 25 years after the publication of his other anthology, "The Best of Ruskin Bond".
Be it the dreams of his childhood or anecdotes of Rusty and his friends, the Ripley-Bean mysteries or Ruskin Bond's days in India, accounts of his life with his father or his adventures in Jersey and London, this book is full of beauty and joy — the two things Bond's writing is most famous for. "PRHI brought out 'The Best of Ruskin Bond', and I am grateful to see (from my royalty statements) that it is still one of the most popular titles. But there were many good things that couldn't get into it; and there have been many stories, essays, poems and memories written in recent years, from which a selection of the best' can easily be made," writes Bond in the introduction of the book.
Bond, born in Kasauli (Himachal Pradesh) and grew up in Jamnagar, Dehradun, New Delhi and Shimla, is the recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award, Sahitya Akademi''s Bal Sahitya Puraskar, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan among other prestigious awards.
His first novel, "The Room on the Roof", written when he was seventeen, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has written a number of novellas, essays, poems and children's books. He has also written over 500 short stories and articles that have appeared in magazines and anthologies.
According to the publishers, the book, a consolidated anthology of a selection from all of Bond's major books — including his complete novella "A Handful of Nuts" — is a perfect gift to all the ardent readers and lovers of Ruskin Bond's effervescent writing. "With a wide collection of carefully selected and beautifully designed stories, this book is truly a delight for the avid Bond reader," it said in a statement.