Mr Oliver's Diary

Book excerpt: A gun-toting, violin-playing headmaster A homicidal barber A hungry leopard and about a hundred frogs on the loose Boys with a talent for pranks and jokes Mr Oliver, a history teacher, arrives in Simla with a trainload of hungry boys to start a new term at the prep school. As he records the antics of the amazing characters there, and all that they get up to, we quickly realize that there is never a dull moment. A fire, a missing Headmaster and runaway students make sure that not a day goes by when Mr Oliver has nothing to report in his diary. He writes about the eccentric teachers, the girls’ school next door and the lovely Anjali Ramola, whom he secretly admires. Laugh-out-loud funny, with a core of old-world charm that is trademark Bond, Mr Oliver’s Diary has stories and characters that have never appeared anywhere before. With his runaway wig, pet shrew and endearing dry wit, Mr Oliver is sure to become as well-loved as those other vintage Ruskin Bond characters, Uncle Ken and Rusty.