THE GOVERNOR'S LOVER

CEYLON 1805

Life was difficult for Lovinia as the half-Sinhalese, half-Portuguese lead dancer in her father’s dance troupe. But when she catches the eye of the newly arrived Governor of the Crown Colony of Ceylon, her fortunes change dramatically.

The autocratic Governor, smitten by Lovinia’s obvious charms but wary of the disapprovals of a narrow-minded British society, builds a stately country mansion on a promontory overlooking the sea close to the village of Galkissa, just a few miles south of Colombo, where she lives. An underground tunnel from the mansion’s cellar allows Lovinia to visit him regularly to conduct their affair secretly.

Life on the island is colourful and exotic, but an undercurrent of violence beneath the bright façade brings excitement and danger to her life. Lovinia is caught up in a treacherous mission and is torn between two very different lives.

Will she follow her head or her heart?

"I have read The Governor's Lover and highly recommend it to anyone who loves historical fiction."

Amazon Reviewer

I enjoyed reading The Governor's Lover. Rod Grigson has taken the bare historical facts about Lovinia Aponsuwa – the Sri Lankan mestizo dancer whose love affair with British Governor Sir Thomas Maitland was the subject of 19th-century gossip and the stuff of 21st-century legend - and cleverly fleshed it out to create a wonderful historical romance. I strongly recommend that you read it. You will not be disappointed. 

Dr. Sanjiva Wijesinha,
Author of Not Our War, Tales From my Island and Strangers on the Camino 

"The author's experience growing up in Ceylon and his knowledge of the country have allowed him to put the reader right in the middle of the events in the story. His effortless writing style, carried through this novel and all his previous novels, creates a sense of excitement through its unexpected twists and turns."

Amazon Reviewer

Buy 'The Governor's Lover' now in paperback or for Kindle®!

ALSO BY RODERIC GRIGSON…

Sri Lanka: 1987

Civil War is threatening to tear the island nation apart!

One of David’s intelligence operatives’ stumbles across a plot by a group of tea estate workers to establish an independent state in the middle of the country. David, on active duty in the north, must convince his superiors that the threat in the hill country is real but then something goes terribly wrong…

Sri Lanka: a country torn apart by a long and brutal civil war…

A bitter, angry mechanic sits in an old Ford Escort parked in the central bus terminal during evening rush hour, knowing he’s about to die in the next few minutes. Devastated by what’s happened to his young family in his home town, Nadesan doesn’t want anyone living in the capital city to ever feel safe again. A local traffic policeman angrily raps on the car window, gesturing at him to move the vehicle.

Sacred Tears, the first in a trilogy...

1982 and Sami is far from home, trapped in war-torn Beirut, a city under siege by the Israelis. All he wants is to go home to his family in Sri Lanka but in order to stay alive he must learn to kill. David, a captain in the Sri Lankan army, is sent to the steamy jungles in the north of the country as punishment for an indiscretion and is thrown into the brutal insurrection by militant separatist Tamil Tigers. As civil war erupts in Sri Lanka and tears this once peaceful nation apart, David's love, the beautiful Priyani makes a difficult choice and the paths of these two men cross on opposing sides of the struggle. They must plumb the depths of their courage and question their beliefs about right and wrong.

Sacred Tears, the first in a trilogy, is a powerful and evocative depiction of Sri Lanka's great beauty and recent tumultuous history. It will take you inside the story of this ancient nation and into the heart of a gripping human struggle.

Roderic Grigson…

…was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka where he was educated and lived till he was twenty-one. Rod’s family were Burghers, descendants of the Portuguese, Dutch and British colonials who ruled the island nation for 450 years.

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