Tea, Temples, and Turmoil: Stella and Norton's Ceylon

In my last blogpost about The Star of Ceylon I mentioned that my recent visit to the country was not necessarily to the places I would have chosen had I known what I was going to write!

I thought it might be interesting to recreate the routes taken independently and together by Norton and Stella. Since the novel goes all over the island, I wanted to include a map in the book and Jane Dixon-Smith of JD Smith Design did a beautiful one for me to serve as the frontispiece to the book and my publisher, Storm, were happy to include it. Here it is:

Stella and the rest of her party, after disembarking from the Dambula, don’t linger long in Colombo – just one night in the Galle Face Hotel – which you can read about here. Instead, they head off by train to Anuradhapura, where they spend a night in a rest house before proceeding north by bullock cart. It’s a pity they didn’t stay longer there – and sadly I didn’t visit it on my research trip. It’s an ancient city, now a Unesco World Heritage site and notable for the well-preserved ruins of ancient Sinhalese culture. It’s also a good jumping off point for the famous rock of Sigiriya which doesn’t appear in the book but which I visited back in the days when I was fit enough to climb up those 1200 steps to the summit and enjoy the spectacular views.

The rest of Stella’s initial journey was into territory unvisited by me. When I was in Sri Lanka before, it was at the height of the terrible civil war – in fact a bomb went off in Colombo during my stay there – so I couldn't visit the Northern province. When I planned last year’s trip, I had no idea I’d be writing about the Northern province or the pearl fishery at Marichchukkaddi so I had to use my imagination and a lot of research (see the post about that). That whole area was no-go for tourists during the civil war – I can highly recommend reading the fabulous Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan (Winner of the Women’s Fiction Prize 2024) for anyone who wants to learn more about the conflict.

When you read The Star of Ceylon you will discover why I had no desire to visit the pearl fishery – not that it operates anymore. The place sounds desolate, and back in 1906 – the last year that the British government controlled it – it stunk to high heaven with the stench of rotting oysters.

"The pearl fishery was an enormous temporary encampment accessible only from the sea. It consisted of a collection of hastily assembled wooden huts thatched with coconut palm and arranged in an orderly grid of streets. The site was situated on the northwest coast at Marichchukaddi near Arippu and inhabited only during the pearl fishing season. The most strikingfeature of the place was that stinking midden of rotting molluscs. It was odd how something as beautiful and refined as a pearl should be found amidst rottenness and decay."

Stella and Norton meet up again in Kandy, the capital of the Central province – and site of the former capital of the Kingdom of Kandy – ruled by kings until a final battle with the Brits polished off their monarchy. The highlight of any visit is to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic – beside the lake which was constructed by Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, the last king. Norton’s house (like Leonard Woolf’s in real life) overlooks the lake – and the tennis courts on which he plays with Cynthia still exist at the top of the lake today.

Inside the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic

Stella and her father are researching the Tamil people – contrasting those of south India with the indigenous Tamils of the northern province and the Tamil tea workers brought in by the British from India to work on the plantations. The tea country is concentrated in the central province – notably around the town of Nuwara Eliya. The latter is like Little England transplanted – Tudorbethan houses, well-groomed gardens with trimmed hedges, and is a centre for vegetable growing as well as tea. The town boasts a golf club founded in 1889, as well as hotels that are time warps from Victorian and Edwardian England.

The other key location in the book is the Southern province and the area around Hambantota. Stella, Norton and others go there on an ill-fated hunting trip in the scrub jungle.

"The tracker put a finger to his lips and pointed at the top of the rock face. At first Norton could see nothing. He strained his eyes trying to make out what was the source of the tracker’s attention in the gloom of the forest canopy.

And then he saw the beast. The leopard was lying stretched out on the rock surface in front of what appeared to be a cave. The creature was about nine feet long from nose to tail, its breast and legs speckled with black spots and the bulk of its taut muscular body covered in black rings with brown centres. Its eyes were the colour of amber. Norton watched intently as Geethan kept one hand raised to indicate they should all wait. Beside him he sensed Stella, her gaze fixed on the beautiful animal."

I travelled to Hambantota in the 90s but this time I went only to the southwest coast, south of Galle and didn’t get as far as the game reserve at Yala or the salt pans – so here is one of my old faded snaps of the salt flats

I hope the map and the images will help you orientate yourself. Finally, I’ll leave you with a picture of the plantation bungalow where I stayed up in the tea country – and which served as inspiration for the McGregors’ plantation – and the gardens for the government agent’s residence in Kandy.

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