Ruskin Bond is an Indian author of British descent. He has been writing novels, poems, essays and short stories for over forty years. He was awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957, The Sahitya Akademi Award in 1993, and the Padma Shri in 1999. He was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Government of Delhi in 2012. His works include The Room on the Roof, Vagrants in the Valley, Scenes from a Writer's Life, A Flight of Pigeons, Landour Days - A Writers Journal, The Sensualist, The Road to the Bazaar, and The Panther's Moon, among others.