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I guess most of us know of a person with one leg, an amputee, even if knowing is limited to Long John Silver from Treasure Island. There are quite a few amputees in the swashbuckling, sea-going world of fiction, Captain Ahab in Moby Disk, Captain Hook in Peter Pan, though his was a missing arm replaced by a terrifying hook. Lord Uxbridge, at the battle of Waterloo, lost a leg and many statements are attributed to him. He commented to his surgeon, in those pre-anaesthesia days, ‘the knives appear somewhat blunt.’ Oscar Pistorius, murderer and Paralympic runner is a living amputee, so is socialite Heather Mills. [Read more…] about Legs

You may not think of Sri Lanka as a place for a literary festival but every year a festival of international standing is held in Galle. Galle, on the South Coast, is a fort town built initially by the Portuguese but much extended by the Dutch from 1659 onwards to protect the natural harbour. Within are traditional dwellings and public buildings, law courts, a hospital, barracks warehouses and churches all being restored to their traditional state. It is now a UN World Heritage site and attracts tourists from all continents.

We arrived at the train station, sticky, shaken, hot and dusty after a six-hour journey broken by one hour in Colombo which gave us time to dash to an hotel for a comfort break. We stayed in a small Dutch style guest house which provided a fantastic Sri Lankan breakfast of egg hoppers and curry followed by a fruit plate with eight fresh fruits; banana, pineapple, water melon, papaya, lime, mango, orange and passion fruit. [Read more…] about Literary festival – Galle