The first use of Ceylon as the location for a fiction film rather than a documentary was in 1936, when the 27-minute Jaws of the Jungle, (aka Jungle Virgin in the US), about an attack by “swarms of vicious vampire bats” on a Ceylon village, was directed by the horror-inspired Hollywood scriptwriter (The Amazing Exploits of the Clutching Hand, etc.), Eddie Granemann.

Regular readers may remember I used to write a monthly feature in this newspaper in the 1990s about plantation bungalows and their history. Such bungalows were not part of the tourist circuit then as company planters were not permitted to take paying guests. So I was delighted to receive an invitation to visit the Halgolla Plantation Home since it is a genuine bungalow with its owners (now retired) in residence.