The Unmarriageable Man in the UK
The Friends of Sri Lanka in the UK (FOSLA) launched Ashok Ferrey’s new book The Unmarriageable Man at the Royal Academy in Piccadilly - their first live event in 18 months - before a distinguished gathering of 70 people including Saroja Sirisena, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the UK. Chief guest David Hare – the renowned playwright - had this to say in his speech:
“I have as little to do with Sri Lankans as I can. Sri Lankans are like wine, they don’t travel well.”
“Before anyone here accuses me of overtly racist sentiment, let me quickly point out that this quotation is not my own, but comes from a book by Ashok Ferrey, called The Unmarriageable Man.
“And let’s also not make the vulgar mistake of attributing to an author the views of his characters. It’s Janine, the racy older woman who’s been in London for twenty years, who makes this remark because she despises immigrants who wish for nothing but a house in Surbiton.
“Anyone who has attended this event today and welcomed Ashok and Mandy to London will know that Sri Lankans travel absolutely beautifully. And so does their work.
“Often in this year of pandemic, when I’ve been able to read much more widely than usual, it’s seemed as if every new novel I pick up is about the question of migration. Why does the migrant automatically assume that the task before them is to assimilate? And what exactly do they want to assimilate into?
“To this question, Ashok Ferrey brings a wonderfully rackety and humorous perspective. His tale of a young man grieving for his father while at the same time climbing onto the Thatcherite express train reminded me a little of Hanif Kureishi’s lovely film My Beautiful Laundrette, which also celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit in the 1980s. But this book, just like Ashok’s last book, The Ceaseless Chatter of Demons, has a sense of fun all of its own.
“If I were asked to define that quality, to say what the book tastes like, I would say there is a mix, hard to pin down, of extreme innocence and extreme sophistication which – God forgive me now for this appalling generalisation – does seem peculiarly Sri Lankan. The characters in Ashok’s books are profoundly in touch with their own feelings, but also recognize that those feelings may change on the turn of a sixpence. This sweet sense of mutability – you feel one thing one day, and another the next – life changes as fast as you do – this liquid flow - is what makes Sanjay de Silva’s progress through Clapham and Brixton as a lover, a builder and a recent orphan so unforgettable. It needs supple and weightless prose to convey such constant shifts, and of that kind of prose, Ashok is a master.
“Ashok was educated in this country, but he may not actually know of all our customs and traditions. It is possible that he has never heard of the award with which I am honoured today to present him. There is a longstanding practice that visiting novelists from the subcontinent should be presented with an object which represents their reason for coming to Europe, and their dream of what Europe may still be able to offer.”
(At this point David Hare dived into a bag he had brought with him, pulling out two large yellow tins of Confit de Canard (duck confit), Ashok’s favourite European food (by his own admission). Then he continued:
“‘It is in that spirit that I am able today to give Ashok Ferrey an award we call - ‘The Golden Duck’.” The audience collapsed in laughter, and the afternoon proceeded with the author reading from his book with longtime co-reader Jane, Lady Chilcott, wife of former UK High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Sir Dominik Chilcott. The event was organised by Chamali Fernando, events secretary of FOSLA.