Vittachi fled Sri Lanka as a child with his family in the early 1960s. The family eventually settled in London in the United Kingdom. Vittachi moved to Hong Kong in 1987.
Vittachi's early career was in journalism, writing under the name Lai See. His novels, including his series about the feng shui detective, Mr C. F. Wong, were published in Asia, Europe, America and Australia. The first two in the series, The Feng Shui Detective Goes South ( 2002) and The Feng Shui Detective's Casebook (2006) are partly set in Australia.
Vittachi also wrote, under the name Sam Jam, for children and for young adults.
Vittachi taught writing and screenwriting in Hong Kong and launched Dimsum, an anthology of local prose and poetry, in 1999 with author Xu Xi. With Jane Camens, he founded the Hong Kong International Literary Festival in 2000.
Source: The Writers' Village website, http://www.jam100.com (Sighted 18/02/2008)
