Book review: It`s a Wonderful Life by Ruskin Bond

So, before the cynics (and yes, there are a few about) go into a spasm of eye-rolls at this latest offering from the Ruskin Bond factory, I need to say this: so, yes, not all the short pieces featured in this book are entirely original. But that old magic remains.

Mr. Bond brings to charmed life all that he touches upon, whether it is chairs that expand to suit an expanding posterior; simians who make away with bright coloured pajama bottoms or shred a manuscript or two; how tigers are good-natured, good-humoured beasts in general; how the earth is tiring of sustaining billions of human beings; why making one`s bed is a stamp of personality; the taste of tomatoes on toast, and this last resonating sentiment: how a world without books would be like a world without grass, just sand everywhere.

Reading Ruskin Bond can slowly, steadily, become an addiction. This latest collection of vignettes can only delight those addicts.