Ruskin Bond's first novel, The Room on the Roof, written when he was seventeen, won the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has written several novels (including Vagrants in the Valley, A Flight of Pigeons and Delhi Is Not Far), essays, poems and children's books, many of which have been published by Penguin India.
Great Stories for Children is a collection of some of Ruskin Bond's most delightful children's stories. It stars Toto, the monkey, who takes a fancy to the narrator's aunt, much to her dismay, a python besotted by his own appearance, a mischievous ghost who enjoys stirring up the house when things get dull, three young children stranded in a storm on the Haunted Hilland Ruskin Bond himself, who happens to make the acquaintance of a ghost at a resort late one night.