Paul Harris is an award-winning international journalist. He is the author of more than 40 books – and he loved Sri Lanka, decided to settle here. He couldn’t find a better home than the Galle Face Hotel that we should be proud to know, is the oldest hotel in the world east of the Suez. There, Paul spent a remarkable year. He worked for the London Daily Telegraph and Jane’s Intelligence Review, but he had to leave this island – packed off from the country by sinister political forces. Even thinking things through, an attempt to get a better idea of the situation is no easy task. Heat seems to have arisen under sundry collars. As he says in his introduction, when from his office in Scotland he asked the GFH if it would have him, he received a warm welcoming fax, offered a deluxe room with a "writer’s discount" of 10%, and he decided to settle here. What follows is his story of an idyllic year but as he says, "Alas, it was not to last."

We are told of the days, until September 1833, when execution by firing squad was conducted on Galle Face Green, while the Portuguese, Dutch and British drilled their troops there. It was then the "lugs of Colombo" but it kept shrinking. Paul is a stickler for detail, and it is this "writer’s virtue" that makes this book so pleasant to read, for it certainly adds to one’s store of historical and social knowledge. Let me give you some points:

[1] A writer had once referred to the GFH as a colonial time machine.

[2] The GFH was founded 23 years before Conrad Hilton was born. [Paul calls him an upstart, and considering the celebrity news today, Paris Hilton is upstart-ling!]

[3] Sir Edward Barnes held the first horse racing meet on the Green in 1821.

[4] In 1856, Sir Henry Ward converted the Green into a place of recreation with a long seashore walk.

[5] The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated on the Green – 20,000 people, tedious speeches, fireworks, the lot.

[6] A.M. Wapchi Marikar constructed the GFH. He was Colombo’s leading builder and also built the General Post Office, the Colombo Museum, the Clock Tower and the old Town Hall in Pettah.

[7] In the 19th century, GFH had the largest dining hall of all, seating 350 diners; as well as the only swimming pool on the island.

[8] The first case of Pimms ever exported from England, was sent to the GFH saloon bar.

Paul cannot resist from quoting what visitors had said:

1903 – American Clara Rogers: "The view from my windows over the sea leads me to believe Ceylon must be heaven!"

In the 1920s – Francis Parkinson Keys: "…the wind-swept rooms facing out to sea looked very inviting. The gentle-voiced "boy" appeared saying, "Lady ring if she want anything."

He also tells of the 1942 Easter Sunday when the Japanese attacked. On the Green was an anti-aircraft battery under the command of Major Mervyn Joseph. It claimed many kills. Later, the RAF dragged a zero fighter to the Green, parked it in front of the GFH and it became a treasure trove for souvenir hunters.

We learn how Prince Philip, when a poor 19 year-old midshipman in the Royal Navy, bought a 1935 Standard 9 two-door car, X8468, for Rs. 450. Later, Cyril acquired the car when in London, and shipped it to the GFH. Cyril was then the chairman. In the 1960s, when Philip visited, his old car, fully restored, awaited him at the airport. The car is still in its pride-of-place in the GFH lobby.

We also learn how, in the 1940s, the boy Christopher Ondaatje, came with his father and mother to the GFH dining room. Being a hot night, the father removed his jacket, but was told that if he did not wear his jacket, he would leave, because he would not be served!

Paul also found the notices beside the hotel corridors quite eccentric: Silence is Golden — GFH admires your decision not to smoke— Please do not smoke in bed because the ashes we find might be yours— Please walk down. It’s good for your health.

He then gets down to brass tacks, telling of the journalists and reporters who wished to get behind the lines into LTTE territory. All this was most interesting, but Paul was not very complimentary. There were many reports that were written without knowledge of the long-running Sri Lanka story. These writers, he says, were "parachutists" dropped into a story they neither knew intimately nor understood well. Their modus operandi was both naïve and stupid and they led to the blacklisting of other journalists. As he says:

On the cover of this book you will see K.C. Kuttan, who still works in the GFH, having served for more than 60 years. He was there, palms together, when I left the GFH on October 21 this year. Kuttan, also called Chattu, has met all the famous guests, was in regular touch with Sir Arthur C. Clarke; and Clarke did finish several of his books in a GFH suite including 3001: The Final Odyssey. As Clarke wrote:

What have the writers said about the GFH?

> Jeanne Cambrai – "A relic of the past, a reminder that the British once ruled with a Victorian taste for comfort over style." [Murder in the Pettah]

> Christopher Ondaatje – "It symbolizes the colonial era – a magnificent palace by the ocean…an aura of genteel society." [The Man-Eater of Punanai]

> Carl Muller – "A chocolate gateau of amber lights and frosted fluorescence…one of the few memorable buildings in Colombo, known so well and remembered so fondly by many people the world over." [Colombo: A Novel].

> Peter Adamson – "The oldest and most dignified of the capital’s hotels." [Facing Out to Sea].

Paul does not fill his account with lashings of praise, also telling of the bad patches – leaking roofs, rats in the drains, cockroaches, brown water from the taps, rats who tried to steal Christopher Ondaatje’s gold watch, crows who took away a lady’s diamond ring. It was Gardiner himself who said it: "The hotel is not perfect, but I think it is delightfully imperfect."

Paul tells of the overlong influence the British had on this island – the GOH and Mount Lavinia hotel with its story of Sir Thomas Maitland and "mount Lovina" of the Grand, Nuwara Eliya by Barnes, the NOH, Galle that was run by the Brohier family since 1899, and the Nuwara Eliya Hill Club. He also tells of meeting and asking the LTTE representative in London, before he came here, whether it would be safe enough to stay in the GFH. After all, the Intercontinental had been damaged, the Galadari hit twice, the Hilton twice. The LTTE rep assured him:

He tells of the Central Bank bombing and buildings burning all the way up Janadipathi Mawatha. He tells of the wave of Russian "hookers’ who came in and spread to the remotest parts of the island; and of the offspring of cabinet ministers with heavy goon squads, ready to cause trouble. Let me quote:

Paul also tells of the crazy headlines he encountered in newspapers:

> President denies he raped Ronnie [word should have read rapped]

> Official stripped by his minister [not unclothed, surely?]

> Suicide bomber blows himself [must have been quite a contortionist]

> Indian team capsized like a bunch of cards [never play when the tide is high]

Telling more about the Green, Paul brings in the young lovers under their umbrellas, and says:

Paul is invited to enter Tiger territory [the situation has changed today] – Madhu, Palamudi, Mallavi with its luxury LTTE hotel, the garden borders marked with used 22mm artillery shells and Tamil Eelam maps that claim fully two-thirds of the coastline, taking in all of the north and east, a good bit to the west and the Uva province. He also tells of his visit to Trincomalee and Nilaveli and the hotels that suffered there. But his writing and conduct was construed as being prejudicial to national security. He was called an arms dealer, simple because he wrote for Janes, accused of destroying peace, had altercations with the PM, was placed under surveillance and no, his visa would not be renewed. President Chandrika said she could not help. G.L. Peiries said: "I cannot and will not." So Paul left, flew to the Maldives with his Chinese girl friend, but returned to the GFH after ten days. Even the British High Commission was uneasy but gave his Chinese girl friend the visa she required to return to the UK with Paul. That, as he says, was the only reason why he came back, and naturally, he was pushed out again.

This is a book so crowded with detail that it is constructed with a perfection that outdoes even the delightful imperfection of the GFH. Paul Harris feels totally vindicated in the firm stand he has taken against the LTTE. In fact MI5 advised him that there was a directive issued by the LTTE ordering his assassination. Why then did the governments here ride roughshod over him? There are wheels within wheels, apparently.