Although this book was written by the author in 1963, it is of considerable value to the students of the British Period in Ceylon today. H.A.J. Hulugalle had drawn his material from valuable and authentic sources, some of which are inaccessible to students and unknown to specialists. His material, for this volume, has been published to give a clear picture of the economic, political and social development of Ceylon, (as Sri Lanka was called before 1972), from the status of a Crown Colony to Ceylon's emergence as a Sovereign state in 1948. Instead of a dull record of dates and achievements, striking and human stories of these men and their activities arc portrayed in a simple and most readable style. The proconsuls who stride across the pages of the book become transformed from empire builders to links in a chain of modern development. In the discernible background are figures of world history like Napoleon, Wellington, Byron, Gladstone, Peel, Disraeli and Trollope. H.A.J. Hulugalle fi