“Yesterday I dreamed again that I was lost in a large city of blinding lights and traffic. I was feeling quite helpless until a small boy took my hand and led me to the safety of these mountains I knew so well. I wanted him to stay – I was certain I knew him – but he turned and walked away, whistling, hands in the pockets of his khaki shorts, and as I called out to ask his name, I woke up.”

I love reading Ruskin Bond. All his stories are simple yet beautifully written. The way he describes the scene, and the characters transports you to the place and the era. One can even relate to a character, and a few might remind you of your friends. His writing takes you to Uttarakhand hills and I love being there.

Lone Fox Dancing is an autobiography written with honesty. Ruskin Bond will take you on a journey of his life, right from his birth to this point. You will get to know the making of a great writer and a great human being. Starting from his days in Jamnagar, to Delhi, to England, and Mussoorie finally. The book is full of anecdotes and written in a witty manner that keeps you hooked to the book. You eagerly wait for what is coming next.

He recalls his boarding school days in Shimla, the other places he lived, his friends, his lonely childhood, and other experiences of his life with honesty and intimacy. All the cities he lived and stayed in are beautifully captured in detail with a perfect sense of timing, if he is describing a 1940s Delhi, you can visualize the place as it would have been in the 1940s.

You will get to know about the making of some of his brilliant novels, his life when he was established as a writer, and the love he received from people. Finally, he talks about the place that has been his home for years and where he is living currently with his adopted family. The way he writes about Mussoorie shows his love for the place and everything in it.

While reading the book you feel as if you are watching the author’s entire life unfold in front of you. It makes you sad, it makes you smile, it makes you wonder, makes you nostalgic. There are so many emotions you go through while going through every single page of the book.

The readers will fall in love with the simplicity of the narration and the humility with which he tells his story without being pretentious. It is easy for any author with a body of work like Ruskin Bond to be carried away while writing an autobiography, but not him, and that is his most lovable trait. 

“No life is more, or less, important, or interesting than another – much of it, after all, is lived inside our heads. I have finally yielded to friends who have been persuading me to the story of my life, but I am still not convinced it will be of any great value. I can only hope that it is, at least, a curiosity; a record of time gone by, an introduction to some interesting and unsung people, and a glimpse into one kind of writerly life.”

It is a must-read for all who have read Ruskin Bond and also for those who haven’t read him yet. This book can start your lifelong love affair with Ruskin Bond, the writer.