Behind The Scenes of Around The Galle Fort launch at The New Dutch Hospital Galle Fort

What started out as a relatively straightforward idea, updating what was already a bestselling book, turned into an 18-month project that has been anything but simple. Re-interviewing the whole Fort, finding new characters like the nation’s hero Kumar Sangakkara, chasing down stories and being chased by the Fort’s dogs. Galle Fort is consistently and constantly changing. Everyday new shops appear and tragically old historic families leave, new projects are embarked on and old buildings restored from ruins to palaces. This ever-changing place has been the cause of much exacerbation as gaps are noticed and interviews chased up, all the while trying to persuade people of the benefits of this book, a reality that many rightly debate and discussing it’s impacts as well as its benefits. In a country like Sri Lanka, where ten minutes really means several hours and a few cups of tea, having to conduct over one hundred and sixty interviews in roughly 8 months was no mean feat and that is not to mention pounding the streets for the guide section, talking to Galle Heritage Foundation and checking facts over and over again.

Issy research reading the exciting new book.

Around The Galle Fort has been a mission and a journey, an exploration into the human nature of one very special place that bewitches everyone that comes here and an eye-opener into the reality of life in one of the most misunderstood countries in the world. Though many now have the option of travel, lots have never left the Fort, creating a diverse and exciting place to be living and working. Some call it a Medieval United Nations with its mix of religions and races harmoniously living side by side of each other. Each day is unexpected, always bringing with it the thrilling tinged with the slightly frustrating. Everything that has happened, however, has simply been harnessed and transformed into fodder for the writer’s mind, every experience providing Juliet’s team with yet more explorative insight into the lives of the people of Galle Fort.

Janaka De Silva's hand painted wooden depiction of the Fort.

Never has there been a place like this living sea fort where everyone from the artists to the chefs to the Jaffna ladies on Leyn Baan Street are happy to give you life changing advice. People here are fascinating to speak to and can educate you as to the wonders and struggles of life in one sentence. A Jaffna Tamil lady whose family has been in and around the Galle Fort area summed up the nature of the Fort’s people in one simple but beautiful line: “Though sweets may be different, sugar is the same.” The communal feeling within the Fort is the driving force behind its success and the huge tea party being held on the 18th December for the launch is indicative of that. It is a feeling like this one that is at the heart of every interview that we conducted. The Fort has become the very definition of cosmopolitan, an attribute we have attempted to convey in the extensive variety of characters whose stories we are telling, people who come from all walks of life and each one of them with important life changing lessons for us all to think about and learn from.

Meg from Stick No Bills gallery holding the winning poster for the No Bills Peace Prize.

Sri Lanka is a phenomenal land with such rich diversity that has only lead to the creation of a culture so layered that even the oldest generations cannot really tell you what it is made up of in its entirety. We have tried to show these many layers in different and interesting new ways. We have eaten wattalappan during Eid-ul-Fitr, the festival to celebrate the end of Ramadan; we have sat in silence listening to prayers while looking in awe at the Fort’s huge reclining Buddha’s and have watched the Fort kids battling it out on the rampart home run cricket pitch.

Galle Fort is a hub of multi-cultural minds, an assortment of creeds, colours and caste. But the one fact that was stressed by every single person we interviewed without exception was that this doesn’t matter. Sri Lankan’s are famous for their hospitality and welcoming attitude. But unfortunately sometimes this is not extended by many of those international residents who have chosen to spend their lives in this country to all and this is something we feel is not deliberate, but simple as a result of a lack of opportunity to meet one another. This is the reason we decided to have a giant Fort tea party old school style so everyone can meet one another face to face. In Around the Galle Fort in 80 Lives we want to educate the world as to the benefits of diversity and provide them with a better understanding of this ancient citadel and what really makes it tick.

One of the Fort's infamous jumpers silhouetted against the dramatic skyline.

This book has the power to change a generation and a nation but only if the people it is written about can utilise its power for good and newcomers understand the power and the importance of real Heritage values. In a team made up of people from every corner of the globe and country, we have indeed experienced prejudice but not nearly as strongly as we have kindness. Whenever there was a problem, someone was always there with a cup of tea and some wise advice, welcoming us into their homes even when you could tell it was incredibly inconvenient. The inhabitants of Galle Fort and the general public of Sri Lanka are unprecedented in their kindness towards others, a fact that even the harshest critics cannot deny.

Sam at Sri Lanka's only hammock café.

It is a country that assaults your senses in every way right from the moment you step off the plane as the hot air hits you in the face to the constant smells, sometimes delectable and at other times simply disgusting. But it will not cease to amaze and excite you, awakening in even the laziest of characters a desire to explore and gain a deeper understanding of this incredible diverse island.

Around The Galle Fort in 80 Lives has been written to serve a purpose. It is an attempt to right the misconceptions that so surround both the local inhabitants and the new arrivals, many of which come from all over the globe, through stories told by the inhabitants themselves. Galle Fort is setting an example to the rest of the world of what it is to live in diverse, peaceful unity and it continues using its ancient traditions from cooking to medicinal practices. At a time when the world seems more divided than ever, as brothers are killing brothers and families are torn apart by prejudice and ignorance, Galle Fort’s story needs to be told, to remind people that there can be hope even when the outlook seems bleak. This Fort, and the country it is situated in, has a unique geographical position in the centre of the world and as I cheekily like to put it, it is a ‘New world centre, with an old world heart.’