Colombo

Port of Call

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In the heyday of steamships and ocean travel in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, at a time when the sun did not set on the British Empire, Colombo was a major link between East and West. On the voyage from Europe to Australia, the city was the last port of call before ships made the long and humdrum voyage down under. It was also the primary port for reloading coal and supplies for ships heading to Japan and China.

Colombo: Port of Call is an attempt to look at Colombo and Sri Lanka through the stories of well-known international figures who visited the port. People like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Don Bradman, Anton Chekhov, Mark Twain and Mahatma Gandhi were among the many who visited Sri Lanka and left behind their impressions of the land.

Deftly narrated, this book is a social document recording the racial hierarchies and imperialist impressions of some of the visitors and a throwback to a nostalgic era of luxury hotels, high tea and much else.