Nobel-winning writer V.S. Naipaul dies aged 85

LONDON (AFP): Nobel prize-winning British author V.S. Naipaul has died at the age of 85, his family announced on Saturday.

”He died surrounded by those he loved having lived a life which was full of wonderful creativity and endeavour,” his wife Lady Nadira Naipaul said in a statement.

She described the outspoken author as a “giant in all that he achieved”.

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul was born in Trinidad, the son of an Indian civil servant, and studied English literature at Oxford University on a scholarship.

He settled in England but spent much of his time travelling and despite becoming a pillar of Britain’s cultural establishment, was also a symbol of modern rootlessness.

Naipaul’s early works focused on the West Indies, but came to encompass countries around the world, often focusing on the traumas of post-colonial change.