Nobel Prize-winning author VS Naipaul dies aged 85
Novelist Sir VS Naipaul, who won the Nobel Prize in literature, has died aged 85, his family have said.
Sir
Vidia, who was born in rural Trinidad in 1932, wrote more than 30 books
including A Bend in the River and his masterpiece, A House for Mr
Biswas.
His wife Lady Naipaul called him a "giant in all that he achieved".
She
said he died at his home in London "surrounded by those he loved having
lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavour".
Geordie
Greig, editor of the Mail on Sunday and a close friend, said his death
leaves a "gaping hole in Britain's literary heritage" but there is "no
doubt" that his "books live on".
American
travel writer Paul Theroux, who had a bitter 15-year feud with Sir
Vidia before reconciling, said "he will go down as one of the greatest
writers of our time".
Paying tribute to his friend, who he said had been in poor health, Theroux said: "He also never wrote falsely.
"He
was a scourge of anyone who used a cliché or an un-thought out
sentence. He was very scrupulous about his writing, very severe, too."
Salman Rushdie, who also disagreed repeatedly with Sir Vidia, said he feels "as sad as if I just lost a beloved older brother".
We disagreed all our lives, about politics, about literature, and I feel as sad as if I just lost a beloved older brother. RIP Vidia. #VSNaipaul— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) August 12, 2018
Writer Jeet Heer called him a "powerful novelist" who "at his best approached Conrad and even the shadow of Dickens" while blogger Patrice Yursik described him as a "titan of Caribbean literature".
One
fan said "no-one inspired me to read more than Naipaul" while another
tweeted that his novel A House for Mr Biswas "stayed with me as a
lasting memory for 30+ years".
'Modern philosopher'
Sir
Vidia, who as a child was read Shakespeare and Dickens by his father,
was raised a Hindu and attended Queen's Royal College in Trinidad.
He
moved to Britain and enrolled at Oxford University in 1950 after
winning a government scholarship giving him entry into any Commonwealth
university of his choosing.
As a student, he struggled with depression and attempted suicide.
His
first book, The Mystic Masseur, was published in 1951 and a decade
later he published his most celebrated novel, A House for Mr Biswas,
which took over three years to write.
Sir Vidia, who was a broadcaster for the BBC's Caribbean service
between 1957 and 1961, was one of the first winners of British literary
award the Booker Prize, for In A Free State in 1971.
Awarded the
Nobel Prize in literature in 2001, the committee said Sir Vidia had
"united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that
compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories".
It added:
"Naipaul is a modern philosopher. In a vigilant style, which has been
deservedly admired he transforms rage into precision and allows events
to speak with their own inherent irony."
His first wife, Patricia Hale, died in 1996 and he went on to marry Pakistani journalist, Nadira.
Sir
Vidia was outspoken and is known for criticisms of Tony Blair - who he
described as a "pirate" - as well as Charles Dickens and EM Forster.
He
also fell out with the American travel writer Paul Theroux, who he had
mentored, in a bitter 15-year feud after Theroux discovered a book he
had given Naipaul in a second-hand bookshop. They later reunited.
BBC
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