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Born on the 13th of July in the year 1913 in Mulleriyawa Colombo, Gunathilaka Bandara Senanayake was the youngest of a family of four boys.

He had his primary education at St. Joseph’s College in Grandpass. Then he had his secondary education at Ananda College Colombo. Due to economic problems he gave up schooling at the age of 14.

Later he did further studies on his own. At the age of 18 he started going to the public library in Colombo which gave him the opportunity to access thousands of books. G.B. Senanayake calls the public library his own university.

Martin Wikramasinghe, then editor of the ‘Dinamina’ newspaper recognizing G.B. Senanayake’s abilities offered him a job at Lake House. For some time Senanayake worked as a professional journalist at ‘Dinamina’ and ‘Sinhala Bauddhaya’.

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

G.B. Senanayake was awarded the ‘Sahithya Shoori’ (literary doctrine) award by the Sri Jayawardanapura University in 1985.

During the later part of his life Senanayake started losing his eyesight. Even though, he didn’t give up writing. ‘Vinividimi Andura’ is a book written during that time.

G.B. Senanayake died on the 16th March 1985.

At the age of 19 he started writing short stories to the newspapers. Though they weren’t published he didn’t give up. This was how Martin Wikramasinghe got to know about Senanayake’s talents.

Senanayake’s first collection of short stories was ‘Duppathun Nethi Lokaya’ which was published in 1945. This was followed by ‘Paliganima’ (revenge), published in 1946. The works he included in ‘Paliganima” calling works between prose and poetry is considered as the beginning of ‘Nisandas’ (Free Verse Poetry).

Some of his books are used as text books for Sinhala General Certificate of Education Advanced Level examination and at Universities.

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

When he lost this...