G. B. Senanayake

Born on 14 July in the year 1913 in Mulleriyawa, Colombo, Gunathilaka Bandara Senanayake was the youngest of a family of four boys.

At the age of 18 he started going to the public library in Colombo which gave him the opportunity to access thousands of books.

Later he left Lake House and while living an unmarried life devoted his time to writing books.

His final resting place is Borella Cemetery, Colombo At the age of 19 he started writing short stories to the newspapers.

Three of his novels won the Sinhala Literary Awards granted by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs.

When he declared his fear of being unable to finish the book his sister-in-law offered to write it if dictated.

Senanayake improved Sinhala short stories as a pleasing and flexible medium.

On the other hand, the characters and incidents are allowed to develop with an interrelationship with reason and result in his stories.

Senanayake has been a person who has shown ability in drawing the language flexibly into fiction writing.

It is said that Senanayake became more prone to artistic side of the work because he was influenced by foreign literature.

Being influenced by French and Russian literature would have forced Senanayake to exceed the limits of Sinhala short stories.

Likewise Senanayake tried to speak about the middle class of the middle-class people living in towns.

Especially exploring the artistic beauty of his own short stories was a path he found from Russian literature.

The G.B Senanayake Foundation has been established with the objectives of preservation of manuscripts, first editions of all his books, tape recording and photographs related to his life and work.