Local fans will be thrilled with the news that come January, the Fairway Galle Lite Fest (FGLF) will welcome Dame Maggie Smith, one of the finest actresses of her generation. The Oscar-winning British actress, known worldwide for her role as the doughty Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films and the imperious Dowager Countess of Grantham in the hit British TV series Downton Abbey will be exploring the skills of comedy acting at the FGLF to be held from January 24-28.
Often described as a ‘national treasure’ in the UK, the 82-year-old star, born Margaret Natalie Smith on December 28, 1934 in Essex has won two Academy Awards for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978). She is also a four-time Bafta winner, and fans will also recall her memorable performances as a homeless old woman in The Lady in the Van (2015) and as Muriel, the retired housekeeper in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) and its sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015).
Dame Maggie Smith apart, the second announcement of participants in the forthcoming Fairway Galle Literary Festival, made this week includes writers of fiction and of memoir, lawyers, diplomats, journalists, editors, performance poets, curators, architects, historians and economists.
The full list of the second announcement of authors is as follows:
Tamar Amitai, a 25-year-old Israeli tourist who went missing in Uppuveli, Trincomalee, was found safe after a three-day joint search operation today.
Heritage properties are major tourist attractions world over. Sri Lanka is no exception in this matter. From Colombo, Galle, most of the mountain cities including Nuwara Eliya, Bandarawela, Hatton and Kandy and in the North, hundreds of heritage properties are spread across.
The Colombo High Court today (28) sentenced former parliamentarian Hirunika Premachandra to three years of Rigorous Imprisonment over charges of the involvement of an abduction.
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