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The Last Colonial
An autobiography in essays by this renowned explorer and biographer of the British colonial period. Christopher Ondaatje is a true child of the British Empire. Born in Ceylon in 1933 and brought up on a tea plantation, he was sent as a teenager to boarding school in England. But soon after Ceylon was granted its independence in 1948, his family found themselves destitute, and the young Ondaatje left school and got a job. In 1956 he made his way to Canada with just thirteen dollars in his pocket. From this improbable beginning there followed a series of commercial triumphs until 1988 when he abruptly abandoned high finance at the peak of his career and reinvented himself as an explorer and author, focusing mainly on the colonial period.
It is the curious encounters behind these often precarious adventures that make up The Last Colonial . The stories tell of Ondaatje’s childhood days in Ceylon, his early life in Canada, his fascination with inexplicable events and local superstitions, and his sometimes perilous travels researching biographies of Ernest Hemingway in Africa, Leonard Woolf in Ceylon, and Sir Richard Burton in India and Africa.
Complemented by the artist Ana Maria Pacheco’s magical, sometimes disturbing illustrations, the stories conjure up a truly unique portrait of a world that is vanishing forever. 30 full-color illustrations
It is the curious encounters behind these often precarious adventures that make up The Last Colonial . The stories tell of Ondaatje’s childhood days in Ceylon, his early life in Canada, his fascination with inexplicable events and local superstitions, and his sometimes perilous travels researching biographies of Ernest Hemingway in Africa, Leonard Woolf in Ceylon, and Sir Richard Burton in India and Africa.
Complemented by the artist Ana Maria Pacheco’s magical, sometimes disturbing illustrations, the stories conjure up a truly unique portrait of a world that is vanishing forever. 30 full-color illustrations
- GenresFiction
256 pages, Hardcover
First published November 7, 2011
2 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Ondaatje
16 books5 followersSir Philip Christopher Ondaatje, OC, CBE, FRSL born 22 February 1933) is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian–English businessman, philanthropist, adventurer, writer and bob-sledding Olympian for Canada. Ondaatje is the older brother of the author Michael Ondaatje and lives in both Chester, Nova Scotia, and the United Kingdom.
Olympic Victory: The story behind the Canadian Bob-Sled Club's incredible victory at the 1964 Winter Olympic Games (1967)
The Prime Ministers of Canada, 1867–1967 (1968)
Leopard in the Afternoon — An Africa Tenting Safari (1989)
The Man-eater of Punanai — a Journey of Discovery to the Jungles of Old Ceylon (1992)
Sindh Revisited: A Journey in the Footsteps of Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1996)
Journey to the Source of the Nile (1999)
Hemingway in Africa: The Last Safari (2004)
Woolf in Ceylon: An Imperial Journey in the Shadow of Leonard Woolf, 1904–1911 (2005)
The Power of Paper: A History, a Financial Adventure and a Warning (2007)
The Glenthorne Cat and other amazing leopard stories (2008)
The Last Colonial: Curious Adventures & Stories from a Vanishing World (2011)
Ondaatje, Christopher, ed. (2013). Love Duet and Other Curious Stories about Music. Minehead, Somerset: Rare Books and Berry.
Olympic Victory: The story behind the Canadian Bob-Sled Club's incredible victory at the 1964 Winter Olympic Games (1967)
The Prime Ministers of Canada, 1867–1967 (1968)
Leopard in the Afternoon — An Africa Tenting Safari (1989)
The Man-eater of Punanai — a Journey of Discovery to the Jungles of Old Ceylon (1992)
Sindh Revisited: A Journey in the Footsteps of Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1996)
Journey to the Source of the Nile (1999)
Hemingway in Africa: The Last Safari (2004)
Woolf in Ceylon: An Imperial Journey in the Shadow of Leonard Woolf, 1904–1911 (2005)
The Power of Paper: A History, a Financial Adventure and a Warning (2007)
The Glenthorne Cat and other amazing leopard stories (2008)
The Last Colonial: Curious Adventures & Stories from a Vanishing World (2011)
Ondaatje, Christopher, ed. (2013). Love Duet and Other Curious Stories about Music. Minehead, Somerset: Rare Books and Berry.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 8, 2012
I was intrigued by this book for it traces a similar path to my life as a Sri Lankan immigrant in Canada, although beginning a generation earlier and playing out on a far more elaborate canvas. It has all the elements that make up the transplanted soul: the sudden dislocation from the known world, the outsider’s view, the early struggles to gain a foothold, achieving success, seeking for what has been lost, obsessions, and the desire to fuse all of the resting places into a coherent whole called Home.
Sir Christopher Ondaatje has definitely led a full life: from frightened colonial schoolboy arriving in a strict British boarding school, to struggling immigrant in Canada, to gold medal winner in an Olympic bobsled event, to successful businessman, to world explorer and writer, to living in a scenic haunted house in the British countryside, and all of that anointed by a knighthood to boot.
There is no overt attempt to fictionalize any of these short essay-like stories which come straight from the author’s life, although some of the tales are so tall, I wished they had been fictionalized to lend more credibility. Interesting personalities dot the pages, like J.R Jayawardene, former president of Sri Lanka, Rudolph Nureyev who sat next to the author on a coast-to-coast flight, and the (nude) portrait of Anais Nin. The author is an acolyte of Leonard Woolf, Ernest Hemingway and Sir Richard Burton and walks in their footsteps by undertaking expeditions to Sri Lanka, India, the Middle East and Africa under rather dangerous and difficult conditions. Ondaatje comes across as the quintessential risk taker, which he likens to being an artist: “the true artist, driven by unknown forces, breaks away from routine and embarks on an exploration of the unfamiliar”— an apt executive summary of this book.
Birds have special meaning: suicide birds that plunge to their death in Assam resemble those who play on the edge, Ondaatje being one; the devil bird whose cry at night signals a death to come; the white crow in Colombo is supposed to be the re-incarnation of an English woman who had an affair with a famous Sri Lankan politician, a story recounted by former President Jayawardene as he opens the window to his garden and has the said crow settle possessively on his shoulder.
The leopard is another animal that obsesses Ondaatje; it is alternatively a goddess, a bad omen and a protector as he recklessly pursues variants of this beast in Sri Lanka and East Africa and shoots it—with a camera. The leopard is also the predator, one that Ondaatje had to become in order to survive in the cut-throat business world of Bay Street. And the black leopard, that most elusive of creatures, is the author’s pursuit of the unattainable – the spur to great achievements in life and perhaps a metaphor of the author’s unending quest for his father who died when Ondaatje was a teenager. There are lots of ghosts too—the mark of a colonial who is able to entertain and integrate the old world of superstition with the rational world of facts and figures.
The author’s style is eloquent but business-like—matter of fact storytelling—none of the literary musings of younger brother Michael. And the canvas is broad: from England in the ‘40’s to Toronto and Montreal in the ‘50’s, to Tanzania, Kenya, Syria, India, Sri Lanka, the Caribbean and finally back to Devon in the present. Ondaatje aims for the punchy ending, always delivering a crucial bit of information in the last paragraph that makes one go, “Oh!”
The final story, “The Glenthorne Cat,” set in Ondaatje’s present home in Exmoor, is by far the most fantastical, and an attempt, I believe, of the author trying to find purpose for his life’s journey that has led him to this scenic place, fusing ghosts, man-eating cats, Sri Lanka and England, legend and reality. Fact, fiction, dream or delusion—who cares? It’s another rollicking good yarn, just like the rest!
The one point I would disagree with Ondaatje is when he calls himself the Last Colonial. This is a book for displaced people of every generation who witness a way of life disappear and have to re-invent themselves in a new world. And there will be more colonials as empires fall in future, some closer to home in North America. Sir Chris’s timing during the changing of the guard in his empire was impeccable, leaving Sri Lanka just before the colonial party ended in that country plunging it into civil war, and arriving in Toronto just as the financial party was getting under way as Montreal declined under separatist fears. His journey is certainly an inspiration to all of us who follow and find ourselves somewhere along that path, albeit with slimmer pickings.
Sir Christopher Ondaatje has definitely led a full life: from frightened colonial schoolboy arriving in a strict British boarding school, to struggling immigrant in Canada, to gold medal winner in an Olympic bobsled event, to successful businessman, to world explorer and writer, to living in a scenic haunted house in the British countryside, and all of that anointed by a knighthood to boot.
There is no overt attempt to fictionalize any of these short essay-like stories which come straight from the author’s life, although some of the tales are so tall, I wished they had been fictionalized to lend more credibility. Interesting personalities dot the pages, like J.R Jayawardene, former president of Sri Lanka, Rudolph Nureyev who sat next to the author on a coast-to-coast flight, and the (nude) portrait of Anais Nin. The author is an acolyte of Leonard Woolf, Ernest Hemingway and Sir Richard Burton and walks in their footsteps by undertaking expeditions to Sri Lanka, India, the Middle East and Africa under rather dangerous and difficult conditions. Ondaatje comes across as the quintessential risk taker, which he likens to being an artist: “the true artist, driven by unknown forces, breaks away from routine and embarks on an exploration of the unfamiliar”— an apt executive summary of this book.
Birds have special meaning: suicide birds that plunge to their death in Assam resemble those who play on the edge, Ondaatje being one; the devil bird whose cry at night signals a death to come; the white crow in Colombo is supposed to be the re-incarnation of an English woman who had an affair with a famous Sri Lankan politician, a story recounted by former President Jayawardene as he opens the window to his garden and has the said crow settle possessively on his shoulder.
The leopard is another animal that obsesses Ondaatje; it is alternatively a goddess, a bad omen and a protector as he recklessly pursues variants of this beast in Sri Lanka and East Africa and shoots it—with a camera. The leopard is also the predator, one that Ondaatje had to become in order to survive in the cut-throat business world of Bay Street. And the black leopard, that most elusive of creatures, is the author’s pursuit of the unattainable – the spur to great achievements in life and perhaps a metaphor of the author’s unending quest for his father who died when Ondaatje was a teenager. There are lots of ghosts too—the mark of a colonial who is able to entertain and integrate the old world of superstition with the rational world of facts and figures.
The author’s style is eloquent but business-like—matter of fact storytelling—none of the literary musings of younger brother Michael. And the canvas is broad: from England in the ‘40’s to Toronto and Montreal in the ‘50’s, to Tanzania, Kenya, Syria, India, Sri Lanka, the Caribbean and finally back to Devon in the present. Ondaatje aims for the punchy ending, always delivering a crucial bit of information in the last paragraph that makes one go, “Oh!”
The final story, “The Glenthorne Cat,” set in Ondaatje’s present home in Exmoor, is by far the most fantastical, and an attempt, I believe, of the author trying to find purpose for his life’s journey that has led him to this scenic place, fusing ghosts, man-eating cats, Sri Lanka and England, legend and reality. Fact, fiction, dream or delusion—who cares? It’s another rollicking good yarn, just like the rest!
The one point I would disagree with Ondaatje is when he calls himself the Last Colonial. This is a book for displaced people of every generation who witness a way of life disappear and have to re-invent themselves in a new world. And there will be more colonials as empires fall in future, some closer to home in North America. Sir Chris’s timing during the changing of the guard in his empire was impeccable, leaving Sri Lanka just before the colonial party ended in that country plunging it into civil war, and arriving in Toronto just as the financial party was getting under way as Montreal declined under separatist fears. His journey is certainly an inspiration to all of us who follow and find ourselves somewhere along that path, albeit with slimmer pickings.
December 25, 2024
This is a well written book but I doubt if I would have read it if I hadn't already been a reader of his bother's books and also because the author makes a mystery of his families decline in fortune in post independence Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) had contributed to laying a foundation of mystery and intrigue which honestly isn't there and, though a good writer, I don't feel that anything much of interest has been said in this book. It promises more than it can deliver. I can't regret having read the book, but I can't imagine I will ever return to it.
September 11, 2021
An excellent set of essays and reflections by one of my favorite authors and former financiers. The pieces on Richard Francis Burton and Hemingway were the best by far.
March 27, 2012
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This extraordinary autobiographical book, with its excellent literary style and illustrations, written as short stories, chronicles the journey of a man who had certainly lived life to the full.
Read more here: http://read2review.com/our-reviews/au...
This extraordinary autobiographical book, with its excellent literary style and illustrations, written as short stories, chronicles the journey of a man who had certainly lived life to the full.
Read more here: http://read2review.com/our-reviews/au...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews