Royston Ellis (www.roystonellis.com) is a novelist, travel writer and erstwhile beat poet, born in Britain, who has lived in Sri Lanka since 1980. He has contributed hundreds of articles about Sri Lanka to UK newspapers and magazines, to airline in-flight magazines, and to Sri Lankan publications, including Explore Sri Lanka, of which he was editorial consultant for 16 years, and to the Sunday Times (Colombo) for whom he reviews Sri Lankan hotels. He is author of Sri Lanka by Rail and India by Rail (both out of print) and co-author of Bradt’s Maldives and Mauritius, Rodrigues & Réunion. He has written several locally published coffee-table books on Sri Lanka, including a guide for investors, a history of the Ceylon Planters Association, a book about organic tea and a garment industry review. As Richard Tresillian, he is the author of a score of historical novels, some of which are set in Sri Lanka, and he is currently working on a Ceylon tea plantation saga. Since 2003 Royston has been the voluntary warden, appointed by the British High Commission in Colombo, for the Southern province of Sri Lanka, responsible for keeping in touch with British residents of the area. When he is not writing about Sri Lanka he relaxes at his colonial-period cottage on the island’s west coast.