Ruskin Bond's first novel, The Room on the Roof, written when he was 17, received the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has published a number of novellas, short story collections, books of essays and articles, poems, and children's books. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1992, the Padma Shri in 1999 and, the Padma Bhushan in 2014. Bond was born in Kasauli and grew up in Jamnagar, Dehradun, Delhi and Simla. As a young man, he spent four years in the Channel Islands and London. He returned to India in 1955. He currently resides in Landour, Mussoorie, with his adopted family.