Skip to product information
1 of 1

Jerry Smith

Broke'n' English

Broke'n' English

Regular price LKR 2,500.00
Regular price Sale price LKR 2,500.00
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781974150205

Broke'n'English began life as a journal I kept of my visits to Sri Lanka between 1998, when I came for the first time, to 2008, when our house 'Jungle Tide' was completed. When we opened Jungle Tide as a guest house early in 2010 a copy of the journals was left in a ring binder for guests to read if they were interested. It stirred up a fair bit of interest and I lost count of the e-mails asking "When is the book coming out?" so eventually succumbed to demand and decided to try to turn the journals into a book. By this time (2016) I was living in Sri Lanka. Bringing the material up to date - an awful lot happened between 2008 and 2016 - was the easy part. Much harder was getting away from the journal style into a memoir which had some kind of a narrative flow. Perhaps harder still was wielding the knife and excising great chunks which were of great interest to me but unlikely to be of much interest to general readers. Self-indulgent jokes and stretches of political and social commentary which didn't really fit were the main offenders. Fortunately I'm married to the world's greatest critical friend. This is my first book. I'm not yet sure whether it will be my last. We'll see.

Shipping

We deliver books islandwide for a flat fee of 500LKR per order. All orders are processed within 1-2 days of receiving your order confirmation. Shipping takes 1-3 business days (excluding weekend and national holidays). Items are packed by Wild & the Sage and shipped by Sri Lanka Post via the Speed Post service. For more information, see our shipping policy

Store pick-up

You can skip the shipping fees and collect books directly from our bookshop: Wild & the Sage, 311 Peellagoda, Unawatuna. After placing your order and selecting In-store pickup at checkout, your order will be prepared and ready for pick up within 1 business day. Our in-store pickup hours are 9am-5pm on Tuesday-Sunday.

View full details

Welcome to Wild & the Sage

Wild & the Sage is an independent bookshop on the south coast of Sri Lanka. We stock a range of local and international titles, available for islandwide delivery. Can’t find your favourite? We’re happy to source books to order. We also host regular workshops and events, as well as a monthly book club. Visit us in Galle to try our kitchen’s incredible menu and sip coffee in our garden courtyard. Everyone’s welcome for conversations over cake.

"The book selection is impeccable, could have wandered around and read for hours."

Susanne T (2024)