top of page
Thomia_9.png

ABOUT THE BOOK

A detailed history of St Thomas’s College, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), which serves as a lens through which the social, historical and cultural development – and, ultimately, the tragedy – of the country itself is observed and examined. Thomia concentrates on mutual influences and interactions between this ‘elite’ boys’ school – a tropical facsimile of an English public school that has produced four Prime Ministers of the country and hundreds of other figures of national importance – and the society of which it is a constituent. The focus alternates between Thomian and national history, smooth transitions from one to the other being facilitated by the wealth of common subject matter. The narrative is chronological, commencing in 1801, fifty years before the founding of STC itself, and ending with the sesquicentennial of the College in 2001.


Thomia is very much a story of colonialism and decolonialization, told from a unique and potentially controversial social perspective. This, however, is only one aspect of a wide-ranging book, and readers are left to draw their own political conclusions. The author’s aim is literary, not academic or polemical.

Mailing List
STC 1950s or 1960s 04.jpg

JOIN THE THOMIA MAILING LIST FOR UPDATES

Thanks for submitting!

Gallery
About the Author
rsimon.jpg

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Sri Lanka, Richard Simon is a writer and editor who has worked for nearly forty years in advertising, publishing, corporate communications and related fields in India, Singapore and the UAE as well as in his own country. He has written and published several books on Sri Lankan history and culture as well as numerous magazine articles. His short fiction has been published by Himal Southasian (Nepal) and Penguin Books (India)

  • Blogger
  • Twitter

© 2023 / Richard Simon. 

bottom of page