For over four decades, by way of innumerable novels, essays, short stories, and poems, the author has mapped out and peopled a unique literary landscape. This anthology has selections from all of his major books and also features an unpublished novella, Delhi Is Not Far.

    Ruskin Bond, master storyteller and connoisseur of the mysterious and macabre, shows how this love may persist to death and beyond. The stories in this collection are set amidst the mists and mellow magic of Bond's beloved mountains. The agents of the supernatural may be gentle like the fairy folk in 'On Fairy Hill', or malevolent like the well-dressed diners of 'The Prize'; humorous like the very proper witch, Miss Bellows, in 'The Black Cat', or tragic like the haunting Gulabi in 'Wilson's Bridge'. 'The Rakshasas' harks back to traditional hill spirits, while 'The Night of the Millennium' poises us tantalizingly on the brink of the future. Bond aficionados will meet familiar faces in 'Reunion at the Regal'. Rounding off this collection is a gripping mystery, 'Who Killed the Rani?', which is evocative of life in hill stations some twenty years ago. And over all the stories looms the benevolent or brooding presence of the Himalayas, described with Bond's inimitable lyricism.

    In addition, there are a host of characters culled from Bond's numerous short stories. Taken together, they constitute a magnificent evocation of the small-town India by one of the country's best storytellers.

    Tata headed India's largest industrial conglomerate with uncommon success. This was only one aspect of his life. He was also a man of great sensitivity who suffered at the loss of friends and was pained by the poverty he saw around him: a philanthropist who wanted India to be 'a happy country' and did all that he could to make it so: a man with a passion for literature, fast cars, skiing and, of course, flying. This book, by the author of the best-selling The Last Blue Mountain, records JRD's thoughts on a variety of subjects. In these pages he speaks of the House of Tatas and his style of management, about how he nearly joined the freedom struggle in the early 1940s, about the 'thrill of living a little dangerously', his love of music and wine, and the writers he likes to read. He speaks also, with striking candour and insight, about the failures of socialism, the future of India and his association with stalwarts like Jawaharlal Nehru. Jayaprakash Narayan, Vallabbhai Patel, Indira Gandhi and Henry Kissinger. Towards the end of the book, in the final year of his life, we see him come to terms with death, God and the afterlife. '...A spellbinding book.' motivation of one of the giants of Indian industry.' --Financial Times, London 'Few tributes have so movingly or so appositely refracted the spirit of a colossus who, though born to the proverbial bold and beautiful lifestyle, was to leave an indelible imprint on so many aspects of contemporary India.' --The Pioneer