"Thank you for an amazing few days with excellent company in a simply beautiful setting. I thoroughly enjoyed the festival as a writer, participant, audience member, and traveler. Wonderful."
Mohsin Hamid
“Your festival is quite simply magic; more fun, more human, more delightful by far than any lit fest I’ve ever attended.”
Charles Allen
"Galle Literary Festival was a great experience in a unique setting. I enjoyed the wide range of important issues discussed and especially meeting and mingling with young local people."
Omar Musa
“The festival was extraordinary, Truly a wonderful thing.”
Philip Hoare
“thankyou for a lovely time in Galle..the cerebral, the hospitality, the food, the wine, and yes the scotch, the personalities, the views, all jostled nicely to create a meaningful and memorable week for me”
Tripat Narayan
“Be warned, the GLF is a heady cocktail: history; culture; gossip; and some great food!”
Nicholas Lander, Restaurant Critic Financial Times
“My Galle festival experience was wonderful, enthralling from start to finish and Sri Lanka itself (my first visit) was beyond my wildest dreams"
Jill Dawson
“I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to literary festivals on three continents and have so far found the Galle Literary Festival the most enjoyable – partly because of the beguiling location, partly because of its intimate and relaxed nature. We ended up falling in love with Sri Lanka."
Jancis Robinson
“A showcase of international literary values and a haven of benign civility. I've never known one remotely like it"
Robert McCrum
"It's a jewel, intimate and relaxed, and without the hothouse atmosphere of other festivals."
Tash Aw
"Galle is one of the best literary festivals I have been to, the country is beautiful, the people are warm, and there was something vital and meaningful about the events and the exchanging of ideas."
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“I think was it was one of the best literary festivals I have
ever been to. There was something very special about the atmosphere
which made it stand out from the run of these things - a friendly
feeling and an enjoyable programme both worked with one another
beautifully.”
Alexander McCall Smith
“I have been to many literary festivals, but this was quite extraordinary: the combination of the beautiful setting, the choice of authors and scheduling of events, the brilliant organization and the wonderful parties was really wonderful.”
Alexandra Pringle, Editor in chief, Bloomsbury Books
“The first Galle Literary Festival was a huge success. The mix of literary chat, long walks on gorgeous beaches, the wonderful setting and the constant succession of mouthwatering literary lunches and dinners made it quite different from any other book festival I have ever been to. The perfect reconciliation of hedonism and bookish high-mindedness."
William Dalrymple
'An instant success, likely to become a coveted fixture on the international literary circuit.', whilst one of Sri Lanka’s leading newspapers, The Sunday Observer wrote "The much-awaited literary fiesta of the Sri Lankan cultural calendar which undoubtedly set the stage for the revival of English Literature in Sri Lanka."
Victoria Glendinning
“Thanks for your kind words and more still for your wonderful hospitality in Galle. It hardly seems imaginable that this is only the second year of the festival. I am full of admiration for your "Why not?" attitude to things. And your island, dear Geoffrey, is magical…..What astounded me about this festival was it seemed so well established..and yet so fresh.”
Vikram Seth
“It has been a privilege to be so intimately involved with a Festival that openly celebrates the diversity of the English Language and its power to be a force for good and a force for change. This has been a great event not just for Galle but for the whole of Sri Lanka.”
Yasmine Gooneratne
“I long to be back in Galle.”
Shyam Selvadurai
"Many thanks for looking after me so well at Galle.”
Sir Mark Tully
“The most companionable of all literary festivals.”
Michael Morpurgo
'The most friendly and attractive literary festival imaginable.'
Colin Thubron
“This is a jewel of a festival attended by avid readers in venues exotic to writers from the cold Northern Hemisphere and even to those from the South. If you wish to rise above your station, be taken seriously and treated like a satrap, this is your festival.”
Thomas Keneally
“Where’s my luggage?”
Gore Vidal