With host Jacqui Trotter at the lectern we had two excellent speakers return to the club – both were engaging through quite different viewpoints on their most recent travels…

Globies were delighted to welcome back Juliet Coombe, whose talk “Around the Fort in 80 Lives”, described the people who live in Galle Fort in Sri Lanka, and where Juliet now calls home. Juliet’s talk based on her book of the same title took us behind the usual tourist landscapes of Lighthouses, Mosques and Markets, to the local inhabitants, many of whom can trace back their ancestry for 9 generations in the Fort area. Juliet showed us the Tuk Tuk driver who doubles up as an ambulance, having had 4 babies delivered in the back seat. A Fortune Hunter in who dives in the sea hoping for the “big one” then works as a security guard. Juliet also explained some of the traditions associated with living in Galle Fort, such as the rituals involved in moving in, that include lighting a fire on the tiles in the middle of your kitchen and sacrificing a scrawny chicken. When her baby contracted chicken pox she was amazed when locals covered him in green leaves from the fort walls, but to her amazement the chicken pox abated. Also divorce is not allowed, with the local Imam telling Juliet to come and find him if her husband strayed and her husband would be stoned! Before Juliet published the book she took over a warehouse as part of a literary festival and exhibited pages and photos from the upcoming book, the people could then see her intentions and ended up coming up with even more interesting recollections leading to new sections being added to the contents.

To find out more about Juliet and the Galle Literature Festival in 2008 – http://www.gallearttrail.com/participant.php

After Jacqui Trotter’s home made Christmas cake had been demolished by those present during the tea interval, our second speaker was John Gimlette whose talk “Panther soup, detailed a European journey in war and peace”. A chance meeting in London with WW2 American veteran Putnam Flint lead John on a journey with Putnam as a guide following the American army’s advance through France, Germany and into Austria. John was able to get the exact route from wartime records of Flint’s journey from US records where every shell fired had been documented. Their journey began in the French Port of Marseille, in The Victory Hotel’s basement which still has paintings that were done by allied airmen while being hidden by the resistance. John and Putnam continued into the Vosges mountains and Alsace where even today you can find plenty of scrap from the battles laying around in the woods. Over the border into Germany via Heilbronn to Ulm, and Ulm’s cathedral is the world’s tallest with its 161m Steeple. Their journey continued through Bavaria, via Neuschwanstein and Linderhof Castles and into Austria to Innsbruck and Oberhofen, which has not changed much in 60 years. The trip was cathartic for Putnam giving him a kind of closure and enlightening for his family who have read John’s book and now know about a period of Putnam’s life that he never talked about, despite having plenty of souvenirs in his house.

To find out more about John and his travels – http://www.johngimlette.com/