His pen might as well have been a scalpel. With a few well chosen words, D.B. Dhanapala could slice past pretence and posturing to lay his subject bare before you. He chose to write about prominent Sri Lankans who had been scholars, journalists, healers,artists and diplomats, but politicians were perhaps his favourite fodder of all. … Continue reading
DBC – ‘Dirty But Clean’ – Pierre, can lay claim to a personal history that is a great deal stranger than fiction. Growing up, it was lavish Mexican mansions, Bengal tigers and neighbours who gave their daughters 13 cars as wedding presents. In his teens, things only got stranger. With the passing of his father, … Continue reading
For a garment that could be charitably described as ‘skimpy’, a bra can be remarkably complex. Into the making of one particular bra went a range of elastics, lace and yarn; there were the cups and hooks, the embroidery and the underwire. In total, it added up to 21 components and 8 packing materials each … Continue reading
Christobel Weerasinghe née Kotalawala was born on the day her father became a member of the Legislative Council. It was the beginning of the 1920s and the life she inherited was one of extraordinary privilege – her family could trace their genealogy back to the kings of Kotte and in the present her father, Sir … Continue reading
John Boyne seems to have become a historical novelist despite himself. “At the start of my career I hadn’t planned on writing a series of novels set in the past; it has happened through chance more than design,” he says. The Irish author of the award winning bestseller ‘Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ and more … Continue reading
Jill Dawson will tell you, “Novelists thrive on the gaps in a story, the murky places that only imagination can illuminate.” Some of her most recent books straddle the porous line between fact and fiction: her novel ‘The Great Lover’ fictionalises the life of the poet W.B. Yeats once described as ‘the handsomest young man … Continue reading
“History is largely male and largely the story of those in power,” says Sarah Dunant. Having spent the last few years in hot pursuit of nuns, courtesans and 15th century Florentine women, she should know. Shortlisted for the 2010 Walter Scott Prize, her novel ‘Sacred Hearts,’ is the last in an Italian Renaissance Trilogy that … Continue reading
It’s day one of the Galle Literary Festival, but Ian Rankin is too absorbed in a conversation about British crime fiction to make his way down to the Fort. “Can you imagine Ms. Marple walking into a police station and the cops saying, ‘Oh thank God, Ms. Marple, thank God you’ve arrived to help us … Continue reading
What would Jane Austen say? Long after she stopped writing them, her novels continue to have a life of their own – in 2009, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ was even overrun by zombies. Now, bestselling British author Joanna Trollope has undertaken to produce a 2013 “update” of ‘Sense and Sensibility’ for HarperFiction. While we couldn’t reasonably … Continue reading
From the minute we walk in, well shy of 10 a.m. Kasunchana Wijeyawardena-Kapilasena is on her feet. Fielding phone calls and curious customers with equal courtesy, she’s very much in charge of her small domain. Dressed in a fitting black dress, slender heels and a gorgeous silver necklace, she’s also a walking advertisement for the … Continue reading
Smriti Daniel 