Childhood in Ceylon is vividly portrayed in a sequence of mysterious stories and exotic vignettes which evoke the author's birthplace, the secretive pleasures of boyhood, and the poignance of Buddhism which stresses so strongly the ephemerality of life. The lyricism of the writing and the rich cast of characters make the book a delight. It portrays an exceptional person growing up in one culture and gradually being possessed by another, by European attitudes, but never losing the vibrant heart of his first years. The True Paradise has been compiled from his writings, after the author's untimely death in 1985, by his widow, Fenella Copplestone.