"Fifty Years in Ceylon (1818-1868) is an autobiography of Thomas Skinner, who was Commissioner of Public Works in Ceylon, an erstwhile colony of Britain. Skinner has drawn his portrait vigorously and unostentatiously. He began his public life in Ceylon at a time when the interior of the country was almost inaccessible and roads and other means of communication were unknown. It is due to the indefatigable energy and zeal that a network of roads nearly 8,000 miles was made possible. He retired as Surveyor General and Commissioner of Public Works. " About the Author "Thomas Skinner (1804-77) was a British Army officer. Dissatisfied with his education in England he came to Ceylon in 1819 to visit his father who was stationed in Trincomalee. He was commissioned in Ceylon Rifle Regiment in Colombo shortly. Thereafter he was appointed in the Public Works Department. He gained longlasting fame for constructing the Colombo-Kandy Highway. Fifty Years in Ceylon, edited and published by his daughter Annie, was published in 1891."