Christopher Ondaatje was born in Ceylon, educated in England and emigrated to Canada in 1956. He has worked at several magazines and newspapers, and in 1967 founded Pagurian Press, which eventually became the enormously successful Pagurian Corporation. In 1988 he sold all his business interests and returned to the literary world. He is author of ten books, including the best-selling Burton biographies Sindh Revisited and Journey to the Source of the Nile; and more recently Woolf in Ceylon, The Power of Paper and The Glenthorne Cat. He was a member of Canada’s 1964 Olympic bobsled team, is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. He lives in London, England and was knighted by the Queen in 2003. The Man-Eater of Punanai is a fascinating story of a past rediscovered through a remarkable journey to one of the most exotic countries of the world – Sri Lanka. Full of drama and history, it not only relives the incredible story of a man-eating leopard that terrorized the tiny village of Punanai in the early part of the century, but also allows the author to come to terms with the ghost of his charismatic but tyrannical father. More than a simple tale of adventure, the story is the revelation of a colourful but troubled past – a charmed life that abruptly ended when the author was sent to school in England, away from the security of childhood and the family he loved so much. Through an evocative narrative we come to understand the forces that shaped this successful mercurial man, and that eventually impelled him to give up much of his power in the business world in exchange for a more satisfying quest. In his photographs and highly personal narrative, Christopher Ondaatje has captured all of the exotic drama of Sri Lanka: the jungles of Yala, the family tea estate, the ancient ruined cities, and, eventually, the strife-torn village of Punanai – till recently the scene of a different terror. The journey’s drama is heightened by accounts of intriguing meetings with people who were very much a part of the family past – privileged members of a declining colonial society. There were risks, too, but through it all the bold quest for truth drove the author relentlessly to a final and inevitable confrontation.