Notes on Colombo’s books and bookmen in the time of Covid-19. – For The Critic
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged alcohol, Aleksandar Hemon, Amazon, Ashok Ferrey, B&Q, Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, books, bookshops, Buddhism, Ceylon, Ceylon Bible Society, charity, China, Chuck Palahniuk, clothing, Colombo, Colombo Fashion Week, Colombo International Book Fair, construction, Covid-19, Dan Brown, David Duchovny, democracy, Denis Johnson, Donald Trump, Dr Sudath Samaraweera, Dutch Burgher Union, education, Emma Donoghue, Emmanuel Carrere, England, Eventbrite, Facebook, Galle Literary Festival, Harrods, health, hygiene, Iran, James Hadley Chase, Jilly Cooper, Kumar Sangakkara, letters, LIDL, Lt General Shavendra Silva, Malaysia, Michael Chabon, Milo, money, music, Nicholas Mosley, Nixon, Northern Ireland, novels, One Galle Face, Ottawan, Panos Karnezis, rain, religion, Robert Knox, satire, schools, Shangri-La, shopping, Sinhala, snacks, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Exhibition & Conference Centre, Tamil, TASCHEN, taxes, TGI Fridays, The Big Bad Wolf, The Critic, the internet, the Sistine Chapel, Tisara Prakasakayo, TS Eliot, tsunami, VIPs, Waterstone's, weddings, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
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Review of Andrew Fidel Fernando’s debut book Upon a Sleepless Isle, which has just won Sri Lanka’s Gratiaen Prize (2019) for English-language literature. – For The Critic
Filed in Journalism, review
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Also tagged Andrew Fidel Fernando, Anuradhapura, beards, beer, Booker Prize, children, Colombo, colonialism, cricket, elephants, English, ESPNCricinfo, Gratiaen Prize, humour, Jaffna, John Still, Kandy, LTTE, Michael Ondaatje, Minneriya, New Zealand, Nuwara Eliya, Picador India, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya, Sri Lanka, tea, the British, The Critic, the Victorians, tourism, travel, tuktuks, Uva Rebellion, writers
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DISCLAIMER: Ten years ago, I reviewed Shehan Karunatilaka’s debut novel, Chinaman, for this newspaper. It was brilliant, I said, and everyone should buy it. I noted, though, for form’s sake, that I’d done some light proofreading of the manuscript, and hoped that this would not be taken either as cause or symptom of inoperable bias. [...]
Filed in Journalism, review
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Also tagged BBC, children, Colombo, Commonwealth Book Prize, cousins, cricket, death, DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, Elvis Presley, Gratiaen Award, Herodotus, independence, Marlon James, Marxism, Michael Ondaatje, Nietzsche, novels, Oscar Wilde, pangolins, Penguin India, photography, Richard de Zoysa, Singlish, Sinhala, Sri Lanka, Sunday Times (SL), The Mahavamsa, The Matrix, war, Wisden
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Ten years ago, I wrote the world’s first review of Chinaman, for the Sri Lankan Sunday Times. Last week, I interviewed Shehan Karunatilaka at the launch of his new novel, Chats with the Dead, at Barefoot Gallery. Here are the (brutally-abbreviated) highlights of those proceedings. – For The Sunday Times (SL)
Sri Lankan erotica comes of age (prematurely) Blue: stories for adults ed. Ameena Hussein It is practically impossible to write good erotica. By which we mean literary porn. By which we mean ‘even DH Lawrence couldn’t really pull it off’. In the UK there’s actually an annual Bad Sex Award, routinely won (‘won’) by mainstream [...]
Chinaman: the legend of Pradeep Mathew – Shehan Karunatilaka Chinaman is brilliant. Brilliant, I tell you. If you don’t have a spare Rs. 800 to rush out and buy it right now, then starve yourself/rent a trishaw/sell your grandmother – whatever it takes to raise the cash. Can we leave it there? No, I suppose [...]
The Gratiaen Prize 2009 The Gratiaen Prize – for those of you not up on your South Asian literary gongs – is an annual award given to Sri Lankan writers for creative writing in English, f(o)unded in 1993 by Michael Ondaatje, with his English Patient Booker winnings. Writing-in-English is a small crowd here – ‘here’ [...]
Very Short Stories* by ASH Smyth (et al.) * inspired by the Galle Literary Festival’s Opening Lines Project Antony Beevor In history, as in politics, intellectual honesty is the first casualty of moral outrage. In both disciplines, the first casualty of intellectual honesty is one’s wallet. David Blacker ‘He hit the morning, running, Benzedrine and [...]
Filed in Fictions, Journalism
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Also tagged Antony Beevor, David Blacker, Gillian Slovo, Ian Rankin, Lal Medawattegedara, Louise Doughty, Michelle de Kretser, Rana Dasgupta, Ru Freeman, Shyam Selvadurai, very short stories, Wendy Cope
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Letter from the Galle Literary Festival 2011. – For theartsdesk
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged Ashok Ferrey, Blaft, Chinaman: the legend of Pradeep Mathew, Claire Tomalin, David Blacker, Diran Adebayo, Galle Literary Festival, Geoff Dyer, Geoffrey Bawa, Gillian Slovo, Ian Rankin, Kaveri Lalchand, literature, Louise Doughty, Malinda Seneviratne, McSweeney's, Michael Frayn, Michael Meyler, Mohammed Hanif, Monica Narula, Neluka Silva, Philip Roth, Pradeep Jeganathan, Rana Dasgupta, Ru Freeman, Sarnath Banerjee, Shyam Selvadurai, Smriti Daniel, theartsdesk, Ulrik Plesner, Wendy Cope
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Thursday, February 11, 2010
Galle Literary Festival diary – part 3.
Filed in correspondence, Journalism
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Also tagged Ashok Ferrey, Blaft, Cyril Connolly, David Blacker, Galle Literary Festival, Ian Rankin, Kaveri Lalchand, Malinda Seneviratne, Neluka Silva, Pradeep Jeganathan, Prospect, Rana Dasgupta, Ru Freeman, Sarnath Banerjee, Smriti Daniel, Solo
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