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Nobel Prize-winning author VS Naipaul dies aged 85 | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Novelist Sir VS Naipaul, who won the Nobel Prize in literature, has died at his home in London aged 85, his family have said. | |
Sir Vidia, who was born in rural Trinidad in 1932, was known for works including A Bend in the River and his masterpiece, A House for Mr Biswas. | Sir Vidia, who was born in rural Trinidad in 1932, was known for works including A Bend in the River and his masterpiece, A House for Mr Biswas. |
The author, who wrote more than 30 books, won the Booker Prize in 1971 and the Nobel Prize in literature in 2001. | |
His wife Lady Naipaul called him a "giant in all that he achieved". | His wife Lady Naipaul called him a "giant in all that he achieved". |
She said he died "surrounded by those he loved having lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavour". | She said he died "surrounded by those he loved having lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavour". |
On social media, people have paid tribute to the author and expressed their sadness. | |
"No-one inspired me to read more than Naipaul," one person wrote while another said: "His novel A House for Mr Biswas has stayed with me as a lasting memory for 30+ years." | |
Sir Vidia, who as a child was read Shakespeare and Dickens by his father, was raised a Hindu and attended Queen's Royal College. | |
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. | |
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for "having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories". | |
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. |