I describe here how the all party group worked out an alliance whereby Mrs Bandaranaike would context the forthcoming presidential election as a common candidate. But in the midst of all the work connected with that, including the drafting of a constitution for the new front, my work at the Council continued apace. This included a new book, an Anthology ...

This post introduces an element that was to feature largely in Richard de Zoysa’s life over the next year, his introduction to a very different group of students at Royal College from the elite he had known before. How all that worked out will emerge later, but it was part and parcel of the political upheaval that was going on, ...

I note here how Bandula too contributed to our educational work over the years, and then I mention someone else who did a great deal for the Council, Scott Richards. His first drama workshop was a great success so I arranged another soon afterwards. The picture after Scott is of the cover of the SLBC English coursebook, with Bandula’s depiction ...

I start with a visit to Aluwihare, which now became my venue for concentrated writing with the Old Place gone, and then describe a delightful week in Kandy when I luxuriated in the first floor suite at the Queen’s, dropping in only occasionally at the drama workshop we had arranged for Rudi Corens to conduct at the Kandy British Council. ...

I describe here the aftermath of that Amparai visit, and later meetings with individuals whom I came to know well in later years, Roshan Goonetilleke who commanded the Air Force during the war and did a brilliant job, and Pujith Jayasundera who seemed an admirable police officer though sadly his ambition got the better of him under the Yahapalayana government. ...

I go on here to describe how we started to produce books for the GELT, setting up an office for the purpose at Nirmali Hettiarachchi’s house, or rather the section on the other side of her house which she used for teaching. The room we were given for our use was one that I spent much time in over the ...

This post indicates the range of activity the Council was engaged in, but now yet another dimension was added to my work. The Canadians, having heard about our book production programme, asked the Council to undertake the production of readers for a new programme which in later years became a very important part of my life. The pictures are of ...

I report the not very encouraging result of my first foray into electoral politics – and my last save for standing for President – and then lots of Council activity including a visit by a delightful if strange man called Martin Palmer. The pictures are of Gamini and Alex and Mark Tully, and Geoffrey Bawa, taken around this time in ...

After nine posts about travel in students days I come back to the following decade and journeys in Sri Lanka. This post describes the rest of that exciting visit to Trincomalee, when for the first time I interacted closely with members of the forces, and was deeply impressed with their professionalism, from the chaps who took me round to schools, ...

I note here punting, which I enjoyed again after ages, including with a group of youngsters from Univ who were very kind about allowing me to relax. But while I enjoyed the frenetic social life that brought back student days, I also as noted enjoyed the quiet times in the flat, and the sleepy mornings after I had walked back ...

Oxford indeed did more for me in this summer of 1979 for it also provided funds to keep me going, welcome both for themselves and also for the evidence that there was much care for me – though I had no doubt that it was George Cawkwell who was behind this as of so much in my time at Oxford. ...

I got back to England early in May 1979, after my tour of America, to find yet another delay. But now Oxford proved positive, in making up for the delay, and I ended up having a wonderful summer, an Indian summer I suppose, unexpected joys for the last of my student days in Oxford. The picture is of Nick and ...

From Montreal I joined my mother again, for a holiday with our old friends the Stokeys, who had been so hospitable when we were children in Canada, and who had then paid for me to join them at Cape Cod in the summer vacation of 1973. And when my mother left, with a week and more of my Greyhound ticket ...

This describes the first leg of my Greyhound Tour, from the North East to the South West, and then back on a parallel route higher up which allowed me to take in a bit of Canada too. The pictures are of me with children of friends in Montreal, of a production of Death in Venice that suggests the ambience of ...

The delay I was told about with regard to getting a formal result did not prove too great a pain since I was able to go to America with my mother, and then tour the country on a cheap bus pass which Greyhound provided at that time. And in New York I was able to meet Ian Kramer who was ...

One good deed I managed in the brief time I was in Oxford that term was to get my mother to agree for my cousin Theja to come over to England, which helped her get qualified as my father wanted. But as mentioned I was away much, going to Paris after that delightful stay in Cornwall. Unfortunately one of the ...

I should have noted, when resuming this series yesterday, that I began with 82 since there had been eleven posts in the previous round to take me to the end of student days. This post again deals with the rest of my journey back home, my over quick finalization of the thesis, and then the return to Oxford at the ...

This post is not about England but I include it in the midst of my student travels for it is about my journey back to Colombo from Oxford after I had finished studies, planning to finalize the thesis back at home. The pictures are old ones, of the outside of the house at Mahadlekluang and us both in the swimming ...

I record here a number of new initiatives, beginning with a programme for youngsters which I started at the Council, moved by the plight of many of those who had helped us. They were now in limbo because universities did not function given the disruptions caused by the JVP, a situation that got worse and worse over the next few ...

This post covers some very important political developments including the first set of Provincial Council elections. The Liberal Party was only contesting the Western Province, which was in the next set. But in the midst of all this there was also much action at the Council, a music tour and additional work at the Kandy library premises. David Gladstone was ...