A walk through FGLF-2019
Under the gaze of the audience: A photographic great Sir Don McCullin at Le Grand
‘The Child in Us’:A Nobel Laureate’s daughter speaks
Today, Nandana has done exactly that – she has a daughter whom she adopted. She spoke of this and other experiences during her Friday session at the Fairway Galle Literary Festival titled, ‘The Child in Us’, discussing too the different books she had written as well as what she hoped to accomplish by creating those works of fiction.
Sounds of ‘Choral’
in an old church
Memories are made of these: Sir David Hare
The Cathdral choir at All Saints Church. Pic by Sameera Weerasekera
Reading from his book, he picked a scene set in his childhood. He spoke of his parents, a father, who would be away at sea for 11 months (they would have to ration their money), but when he came back for that one month, they would suddenly be able to go out to restaurants and his mother from whom he inherited his love for the theatre, also paying rich tribute to his designer wife Nicole Farhi.
Behind the lens with Sir Don McCullin
One of Galle’s scenic hotels Le Grand was the perfect setting for the Literary Salon on Saturday evening with famed war photographer Sir Don McCullin who spoke of his work also as a landscape photographer. How he travelled for hours, and stood on Hadrian’s Wall after a blizzard had just passed, and took a picture of the breathtaking sight he saw – “I was the happiest man in England.”
Sir Don is not interested in taking pictures during the summer and waits for winter to take his camera out, as he doesn’t like the look of the summer light.
He also shoots in black and white because he feels that colours are not what are seen but created by the camera, but this may have something to do with his colour blindness as one of the audience members pointed out.
The talk he gave had the audience deeply engaged while the book showcasing his pictures was passed around so the audience could take a look for themselves at his work.
Kamila Shamsie talking to Ameena Hussein
Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire
Kamila Shamsie’s experience of going through customs, an ordeal she faced for years when she would have to go into an interrogation room, meeting others who were waiting as well, the stories they shared with her became the inspiration for her book, ‘Home Fire’. Kamila spoke of this at her last session at the FGLF on January 20 as the Festival drew to a close.