I am not a fast reader nor a consistent one. With mind cluttered with my medicine, human rights, the state of our public hospitals, the horrors in Africa etc, I cannot read a book from cover to cover. Siva’s “Witness to History” was the exception. I got it on Thursday, I read it all day and for most of the night till Sunday, covering the 683 pages, reading even the Index! So will you if you are fortunate enough to get this book. It is compulsory and addictive reading.
It is difficult to describe this book, let alone review it. It is not just memoirs (as Siva claims), it is not a narrative, it is not a history book. Remarkably, it is all of these. I can best describe it as “A historical narrative by someone who was in the thick of it and deeply involved.”
You will find in it details of events that have not been published in any other book - not one that has come my way. It will now be my reference book. When I am asked (as I often am) about some event that occurred in, say 1940 or 1957 or 2004, my response will be “Let’s see what Siva has in his book”. This remarkable book takes you through ‘History’, the way History should be presented. The oft-quoted dictum of the legendary editor C.P.Scott “Comment is free, facts are sacred” has been strictly adhered to. You will find facts, masses of it, recorded accurately and untwisted, and ‘comment’ which is not only free but fair and unbiased. Siva’s book, like all his writings, displays journalistic integrity at its best.
Priced at much less that the cost of a restaurant dinner (UK$40, Canada $50, Australia $50 and Euro 30), it is, if anything underpriced. A Tamil friend of mine says that it is ‘expensive’. Excuse me while I laugh. All I can say is that I will rather skip a dinner and buy this book. My friend went on “The Tamils are not great readers”. If that is true, I know not since I am a Sinhalese (!), this ‘deficiency’ will be corrected if they read the writings of this outstanding journalist and author.
Siva will not make a fortune on this book, nor was this his intention. He says that the book is his way of saying ‘farewell’ to his many friends in Britain as her returns to Sri Lanka. We can only hope and pray that his bone-marrow cancer (myeloma) will be properly treated there so that the wish of that truely great Sinhalese, Adrian Wijemanne, who wrote the Foreword, can be fulfilled: -
“One must hope that Mr Sivanayagam will not lay down his pen and will continue to dazzle us with this brilliant exposition of the great cause to which he is committed.”
Brian Senewiratne Brisbane, Australia
