Mount Lavinia Hotel celebrates 210 years with ‘Words on the Mount’

Mount Lavinia Hotel Group Director – Business Development and Corporate Communications Lakmini Raymond, Mount Lavinia Hotel Group General Manager Bazeer Cassim and Words on the Mount Curator Shevanthie Goonesekera – Pic by Bhanuka Kirinde

Celebrating a momentous 210 years, the Mount Lavinia Hotel announced recently a literary event called ‘Words on the Mount’, to be held on 8 and 9 July.

The event seeks to promote Sri Lanka as a tourist destination with a rich literary history and colonial legacy. To that end, the iconic hotel will be hosting a number of writers who have a “special connection” to the island.

The guests for Words on the Mount include: winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Novel in 1994 Louis de Bernières, thriller writer and award-winning television producer Peter Grimsdale, writer and broadcaster Stephanie Calman and author Rohan Candappa.

A special part of the 210 celebrations will be the launching of the Second Edition of the book ‘Mount Lavinia, the Governor’s Palace’, whose author Shevanthie Goonesekera is also curator for Words on the Mount.

Elaborating on the objective of celebrating the written word at Mount Lavinia Hotel, Shevanthie noted, “We want something new, to be challenged, to be innovative. To promote another generation of writers in the country and inspire the creativity of Sri Lankans to do new things.”

The first day of the event will be invitation only and accommodate around 150 people. The second day will be open to the public but guests will have to register free of charge before attending. Mount Lavinia Hotel said that these loose regulations were in place to ensure that people committed to attending.

During the course of the event Louis de Bernières will introduce his new novel, ‘The Dust That Falls From Dreams’. Part of a trilogy set during the First World War, Louis’ first book ends in Sri Lanka. Louis has a very special connection to the island which he will reveal during his visit to Mount Lavinia.

Similarly, Peter Grimsdale will introduce his novel, ‘Perfect Night’, also set in Sri Lanka and will explain how the book was inspired through his visit to the island. Reflecting the eclectic tastes of the authors Shevanthie said, “We are trying to do something really different, the writers have a connection with the island in some way; Louis has set his novel in Ceylon, Peter Grimsdale was on the island in 1984 and based his novel on his diary, Stephanie whose favourite book is ‘Running in the Family’ by Michael Ondaatje, will be producing a specially written piece for Mount Lavinia and Rohan will do a unique performance piece for the grand finale celebrating what is it to be ‘quintessentially British’.”

Mount Lavinia Hotel Group General Manager Bazeer Cassim said: “We are delighted to be hosting some notable names from the literary world, who love Sri Lanka. This groundbreaking event bringing writers to Mount Lavinia enhances our proud literary history as we create a space for local writers and the public to explore culture through a celebration of literature, history and the arts.”