The Last Colonial: Curious Adventures & Stories from a Vanishing World - Hardcover

'Exhilarating collection of travelling tales ... offer an evocative portrait of the late-colonial era, interwoven with beautiful illustrations ... Not only the geographical landscapes intrigue, but the landscapes of the human mind and heart which Ondaatje charts in moving details' - Independent 'Christopher Ondaatje has crammed a lot into his 78 years ... his clean, clear prose glints with myths, monsters, mischief and murder' - Wanderlust 'A summing up of his life to date and his earlier writings ... handsomely published ... [Ondaatje has] a taut, chiseled writing style ... aptly complemented by the brilliant, surreal illustrations' - The Historian 'An absolutely captivating read, made even more special by the enigmatic and disturbing images provided by Ana Maria Pacheco's paintings' - We Love This Book

An autobiography in essays that conjures up a truly unique portrait of a world that is fast disappearing. Christopher Ondaatje is a true child of the British Empire. Born in Ceylon in 1933 and brought up on a tea plantation, he was sent as a teenager to boarding school in England. But soon after Ceylon was granted its independence in 1948, his family found themselves destitute, and the young Ondaatje left school and got a job. From these beginnings there forllowed a series of commercial triumphs until 1988 when he abruptly abandoned high finance at the peak of his career and reinvented himself as an explorer and an author, focusing mainly on the colonial period. It is the curious encounters behind these often precarious adventures that make up this book. The stories tell of Ondaatje's childhood days, his early life in Canada, his fascination with inexplicable events and local superstitions, and sometimes perilous travels researching his acclaimed biographies. Illustrated throughout with original images by Ana Maria Pacheco, The Last Colonial lives up to the romance of its tantalizing title.

Table of Contents

About the Artist · Acknowledgments · Introduction by Michael Holroyd · Prologue: SeducedbytheWrittenWord-MikeWhite’sImperialJazzBand-A ChristmasCrisis · Olympic Victory · ‘Suicide’ Birds · The Man-Eater of Punanai · The Gardens of Taprobane · Murder in Ceylon · Chandrasena’s Revenge · A Tea Planter’s Story · The Devil Bird · A White Crow · The Human Leopard Society · Leopard in the Afternoon · The Semliki Leopard · The Riddle of Lewa Downs · Kilimanjaro: Hemingway in Africa · Bewitched by the Syrian Desert · Blood Libel: Richard Burton and Human Sacrifice · The Rise and Fall of Nathaniel Naismith · The Killing of Sir Harry Oakes · Sargent’s Ashes · Flying with Superman · Grand Slam · The Blue Nude · Meisner’s Island · The Glenthorne Cat