Ruskin Bond, born 19 May 1934 in Kasauli Distt Solan, is an Indian author of British descent. He is considered to be an icon among Indian writers and children's authors and a top novelist.

In 1992 he received the Sahitya Akademi award for English writing, for his short stories collection, "Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra", by the Sahitya Academy, India's National Academy of Literature. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 for contributions to children's literature. He now lives with his adopted family in Landour near Mussoorie.

Born in pre-independent India, Ruskin Bond is the quintessential Indian writer in English and a lifelong lover of India. He was born in a military hospital in Kasauli to Edith Clerke and Aubrey Bond.

Bond spent his early childhood in Jamnagar, Dehradun and Shimla. His parents divorced when he was young and he had a rather solitary childhood. In 1944, Ruskin’s father died, succumbing to malaria. He was raised by his mother (who remarried an Indian businessman), and other relatives. He completed his schooling at Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, from where he graduated in 1952.

Ruskin’s love for books and writing had come early to him, since father always surrounded him with books and encouraged him to write little descriptions of the nature, as he took Rusty on hikes around the hills. It was after school, that he began to carve out a niche as a writer.

Soon after his schooling, Ruskin left India to live in London. There, he took up odd jobs like working for a travel agency and a photo shop. He lived there for four years, but memories of India continuously haunted and overwhelmed him.

Bond wrote his first story, Room On The Roof at the age of 17. It won him instant recognition and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957, awarded to a British Commonwealth writer under 30. The book captured the vibrant mystique of the Himalayas, and evidently earned him his passage to India too. With the money that he earned from this book, he bought a ticket to India- his home for the rest of his life.