Christopher ondaatje biography

Ondaatje, Christopher –

PERSONAL: Born February 22, , in Kandy, Ceylon; son of Philip Mervyn and Enid Doris Ondaatje; married, ; wife's name Valda; children: David, Seira, and Jans. Education: Attended Blundell's School, Tiverton, England. Religion:Church of England.

ADDRESSES: E-mail—[email&#;protected].

CAREER: Writer, publisher, and banker. Affiliated with National and Grindlays Bank, London, England, –55; Burns Bros. & Denton, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, –56; Montrealer Magazine and Canada Month Magazine, –57; Maclean-Hunter Publishing, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, –62; Financial Post, Toronto, –65; Pitfield, Mackay, Ross & Company, Ltd., Toronto, – Founder and former chair, Pagurian Corporation, Ltd., Toronto, –89, and vice president, Loewen, Ondaatje, McCutcheon & Company, Ltd., –88; former vice chair, Hees International Bancorp, Inc. Founder, Ondaatje Foundation Canada, Ondaatje Foundation Bermuda, Ondaatje Hall Trust England, Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture (with Royal Society of Portrait Painters), and Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. Honorable governor, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; trustee, National Portrait Gallery (London, England), and Pearson College (Canada); member of advisory board, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, and Lakefield College School (Ontario, Canada); governor emeritus, Blundell's School. Member, Canadian Olympic bobsled team,

MEMBER: Traveller's Club (London, England), Royal Geographical Society (England; fellow), Royal Society of Literature (honorary fellow), Chester Yacht Club of Nova Scotia, Somerset County Cricket Club.

AWARDS, HONORS: Officer, Order of Canada, ; Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), ; awarded knighthood in the Queen's honours list, England, ; honorary degrees from Dalhouise University, , University of Buckingham, , and Exeter University,

WRITINGS:

The Prime Ministers of Canada: –, Pagurian Press (Toronto, Ontario, Canada),

(With Gordon Currie) Ol

Sir Christopher Ondaatje

Born in Sri Lanka and educated in England, Sir Christopher Ondaatje was a successful financier and publisher in Canada before reinventing himself as an adventurer and author.

"In the s I read Fawn Brodie's book The Devil Drives, which is the biography of Sir Richard Burton, and it literally turned my life," he told Traveller magazine in "I realised that was the life I should have led and the one I wanted to lead – but I couldn't because I was hacking my way through the jungles of finance."

It took a face-to-face encounter with a female leopard in the Serengeti to force the change. Within days of the sighting he sold up in Canada, returned to England and began what he calls his real life, one where adventure and writing are the driving forces.

He has since written books on his hero Burton, on the celebrated author Ernest Hemingway and on his childhood home of Sri Lanka. And he may well be the only person alive to have retraced all the Victorian explorers' journeys – including an expedition to find the source of the Nile.

Another pivotal moment in Africa occurred while he was camping in Uganda in , the night President Mobuto was overthrown by the rebel Laurent Kabila in Zaire. "It was an extraordinary night, and how I survived I've no idea We didn't know what was happening but there were hundreds and hundreds of people storming across the Zaire border and into Uganda, and there were gun shots and shouts."

The event sparked the start of the philanthropic life for which Ondaatje is just as well known as he is for his books. He is a life patron of the National Portrait Gallery and in paid out nearly £3 million to help build its new ‘Ondaatje Wing'. A year later he donated £ million to the Royal Geographical Society for a lecture theatre and archive. He's also given a hefty £ million to his old school, Blundell's, in Devon; over $ million to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia; a further $1 million for a new South Asian gallery at the Roya

  • Sir Christopher Ondaatje was.

    • Sir Christopher Ondaatje: The Last Colonial

    Is The Last Colonial the autobiography you have when you’re not having an autobiography?

    There are 27 stories in the book. They are not necessarily autobiographical, but taken all together reveal part of my life that you will never get anywhere else. Some of them are from when I was a young boy. We were wealthy and then we were destitute. Others are about how you survive and what you do to survive. Or going to a new country with no money. It’s about taking the risks and having the adventures.

    I got the feeling that re-establishing your family’s position was very important to you.

    I tried hard to get my family back on its feet. Being the eldest child, you have a kind of responsibility. I had a responsibility to my parents, to my sisters and my brother. You don’t talk about it, you just do what you can. But really, it’s a case of whether you have ambition and when that ambition is instilled in you. I was always hungry – hungry! – to put my family back on the map. As I’ve said, I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor and rich is better.

    You were born in Sri Lanka. You went to school in the UK. You emigrated to Canada. Did this upbringing instill in you a sense of adventure?

    I led a wild, carefree life in Sri Lanka. And then I was sent to a public school in England. I was this thin, sallow person with a shock of thick black hair and I had to toughen up. In many ways I built a cocoon around myself, to protect myself. The same thing happened in London. And the same thing happened in Canada.

    By the time I was 22, when I went to Canada, I had this worldly education that most people didn’t have. Where are you going to get that from unless you experience it? It’s not that I was brought up that way, it’s just who I became.

    In you went on safari in Tanzania. That seems to have had a huge impact on you and on your life.

    Basically I was fed up with the financial business. I remember doing a financ

  • A Sri Lankan-born Canadian–English businessman,
  • Sir Philip Christopher Ondaatje

    • Christopher Ondaatje

    Nobleman, businessman, philanthropist, adventurer, writer (born )

    Sir

    Philip Christopher Ondaatje

    Born () 22 February (age&#;91)
    OccupationBusinessman

    Sir Philip Christopher Ondaatje (; born 22 February ) between and TheEarl of Rothes, Lord of Leslie and Sheriff of Fife, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian-English businessman, philanthropist, adventurer, writer and bob-sledding Olympian for Canada. Ondaatje is the older brother of the author Michael Ondaatje and lives in both Chester, Nova Scotia, and the United Kingdom. He was infeft in November and designed by the Lord Lyon in September (amended from December ) as the Earl of Rothes, Lord of Leslie, and Sheriff of Fife in the Baronage of Scotland.

    Overview

    Born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to Major Mervyn Ondaatje and Doris Gratiaen, a Chetty-Burgher family of Dutch and Indian origin, Ondaatje first went to S. Thomas' Preparatory School in Kollupitiya as one of its first students, and later went to Blundell's School in the United Kingdom. His name comes from an Indian ancestor called Ondaatchi from Thanjavur, India. After his alcoholic father lost the family fortune, Ondaatje had to leave school a year from graduation.

    In , he emigrated to Canada, arriving in Toronto with virtually no money. He quickly began to rebuild the family fortune, becoming a wealthy stockbroker, going on to be one of the three founding members of Loewen Ondaatje McCutcheon. He became a multi-millionaire in the publishing industry by founding the Pagurian Press, which he later sold to the Bronfman family.

    He represented Canada in the four-man bobsled at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. Although the first Canadian men's team won gold in the event, Ondaatje's team finished 14th out of 18 teams. He is a member of the Chester Yacht Club in Nova Scotia, where he owns an island with a view of Chester Harbour.[8&

  • Born in Sri Lanka and educated