A Book for all Ages

Ruskin Bond is at his vintage best in this childhood memoir spanning two years, one of which he spent with his father (his parents had just separated) and the other at a new boarding school. He’s eight, has just escaped his jail-like boarding school in the hills and has come to live with his father in Delhi. The year is 1942 and Bond’s father is serving in the Royal Air Force in the Codes and Cyphers section. In the backdrop of WWII, Bond’s time is filled with books, cinema, music, and walks and conversations with his father—a dream life for a curious and wildly imaginative boy, although tragedy awaits. Bond writes with visible feeling: “Not many fathers are capable of tenderness towards their children. They are usually too busy ‘earning a living for the family’—or that’s the excuse! So I was lucky to have a father who gave me nearly all his spare time, who brought me books, took me for walks, shared his interests with me and held my hand in the dark.” Released on May 19, the author’s birthday, it’s a book for children but there’s nothing to stop the big people from enjoying it too.