A COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNT OF A NATIONAL TRAGEDY-by Professor Ravindra Fernando Source:Island Published by Vijitha Yapa Publications April 2021 Review by Tissa Devendra Price Rs 700 None other than Professor Ravindra Fernando could ever have written this fascinating account of this blood stained chapter of our country’s recent history. He is our pre-eminent author on forensic subjects. His work on the Sathasivam and the Vicarage murders have won acclaim for their fine expression of forensic and legal knowledge. What is most valuable is his account of the political and social background of this troubled period that culminated in this assassination. We are given a meticulously researched account of the phenomenal rise of young Premadasa from humble origins in Colombo’s working class Pettah to the supreme position of Sri Lanka’s President. But his journey to the summit was not smooth. He had to fight tooth and claw, using every stratagem and ally ...

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Library of our first University Memories of “Villa Venezia” Source:Island I wonder how many are yet around to share my memories of the wonderful library of Villa Venezia that brightened our undergraduate years in the University before it fled Thurstan Road to Peradeniya. It was, probably, Jennings’ predecessor Marrs, who picked on the exotic Villa Venezia to house the University Library. I have not yet come across any photograph, or drawing, of this miniature Venetian palazzo built for an imaginative, but long forgotten, Colonial grandee amidst the lush greenery of Cinnamon Gardens. The Villa was a baroque two-storied pink building flanked by elegantly twisted columns, and overhung by an ornate balcony that would have enthralled Romeo. A large ground floor room charmed its readers by walls frescoed by scenes from Greek and Roman mythology, closely copied from Venetian originals. The top floor housed the library proper and the spacious reading ...

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