VS Naipaul: ‘Great art, dreadful politics’

V.S. Naipaul, the Trinidad-born, Britain-based Nobel laureate whose precise and lyrical writing in such novels as A Bend In The River and A House For Mr. Biswas, and brittle, misanthropic personality made him one of the world’s most admired and contentious writers, died at his London home on Aug 11, his family said. He was 85.

His wife, Nadira Naipaul, said he was “a giant in all that he achieved and he died surrounded by those he loved having lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavour.”