Growing
Seven Years in Ceylon
Published on 30. September 2015
208 pages
978-1-78060-029-1 (ISBN)
Description
Growing is the autobiography of a young man sent straight from university to help govern the British Empire. Rarely has an empire had such an intelligent, dutiful, hard-working and incorruptible civil servant. Woolf was determined to do what was good, but discovered for himself that colonial rule was fated to do what was wrong. Growing is a deeply affectionate portrait of the mystery, magic and savage beauty of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) at the beginning of the twentieth century. For Woolf had both the time and the intelligence to explore the country, its diverse religions, beliefs and philosophies, and to pay attention to the differing cultures of the Sinhalese, Tamil and Anglo-Indian communities. He also had the wit to leave a series of devastating portraits of the colonial ruling class.
More details
Person
Leonard Sidney Woolf was born in London in 1880. Educated at St Paul's School, he won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1899. In 1904 he joined the Civil Service in Ceylon. On his return to England in May 1911 he married Virginia Stephen who was, like her husband, a central figure in the Bloomsbury Group. His first novel, The Village in the Jungle, was published in 1913 followed by Wise Virgins (1914). His other books include Socialism and Co-operation (1921), After the Deluge (1931), Barbarians at the Gate (1939), Principia Politica (1953) and a five-volume memoir. He worked as literary editor of the Nation from 1923-30, as well as for the Hogarth Press, which he co-founded with Virginia in 1917. He died in 1969.
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Foreword
- Chapter I: The Voyage Out
- Chapter II: Jaffna
- Chapter III: Kandy
- Chapter IV: Hambantota
- Chapter V: Epilogue
- Biographical Afterword
- Copyright
