ANDREW LOWNIE: THE MOUNTBATTENS IN SRI LANKA
Prize winning historian and biographer Andrew Lownie is known for his bestsellers on the British monarchy – his most recent book “Traitor King” on the story of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s turbulent lives after Edward abdicated the throne received high praise with many critics commending Lownie’s ability to make a strong case for the unforgiving title.
It was his previous biography however, which was the focus of his session at the Festival, that received the most significant of attention by the press and the world. Lownie’s “The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves” featured a nuanced and highly controversial portrayal of two very unusual people and their complex marriage – Lord Louis ‘Dickie’ Mountbatten and Lady Edwina Mountbatten.
In his session on the Mountbattens in Sri Lanka, Lownie took the audience through a narrative journey of Dickie Mountbatten’s career which included being stationed in Sri Lanka near Peradeniya for part of the Second World War when the British made a strategical move to relocate their South East Asian Command (SEAC) Headquarters to Ceylon. Lord Mountbatten served as the Commander of SEAC and commanded the war to victory while stationed in Sri Lanka and later, became the last Viceroy of India.
Quite interestingly, and perhaps scandalously, Lownie revealed that it was while Dickie was based in Ceylon that he met Janey Lindsay, a former girlfriend of JFK and Donald Niven and arguably, the love of Dickie’s life. In the letters uncovered by Lownie and read at the session, it was clear that the affair continued until the end of the war and the two were very much in love.
While Lownie’s event had all the markers to be a reverting session, logistical arrangements of the venue where the session was held could hardly accommodate the crowds that have gathered to hear the details of the ties between the Mountbattens and Sri Lanka and Lownie, without any mics to his aid could only garner the attention of those who were lucky enough to be seated in the first few rows.
“It was fascinating to hear about the Mountbattens and about their ties to Sri Lanka and all the scandal and love that happened here”
DEHAN
“I was so interested in this session and I wanted to focus on it but they should have given [him] a mic and it could have been better organized”
PAM