EXTRACTS From The DIARIES Of DONALD FRIEND, Volume 3** …. The Ceylon Diaries cover the period 25th January 1957 to 22nd July 1962 and run into 180 pages in small print. During this period Donald Friend, the gifted Australian artist, based himself at Bevis Bawa’s ‘Brief’, Bentota.
“His diary entries are pithy, sarcastic, self-critical and wonderfully observant of people, places and events. I dare say he was a better writer than a painter. One can only look on aghast at how little things have changed in Sri Lanka in nearly 50 years of turmoil. ….” .… (the author of this ASSESSMENT remains unclear; while the highlights are interventions on my part: Michael Roberts).
26th January 1957: Time drifts through all this…. carrying on his back, like a turtle, a weight of the idiotic likes and dislikes….
4th February: Who like Bevis, is a hypochondriac. They both make a fascinating hobby of pills and injections …
19th March: The horrid old guide jibbered on endlessly, telling whopping lies.
24th March: Ratnapura Resthouse – nauseatingly loud Americans and a rabble of Ceylon drunks.
11th April: Orientals fortunately regard madness as something allied to holiness.
“Barbarians on scooters are riding through our capital city hunting Israelis and Jews,” David van Weel, the Dutch Minister of Justice and Security, wrote on X late last week as a violent, largely Muslim, mob rampaged through Amsterdam’s streets.