TIL Desk/World/London/ V S Naipaul, Trinidad-born Indian-origin author, Noble prize winner, known for his critical commentary on colonialism, religion and politics, has died at the age of 85, his family said early on Sunday. ‘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,’ his wife Lady Nadira Naipaul said in a statement.
Naipaul, who lived most of his life in England, died in his London home on Saturday. Vidiadhar Suraj prasad Naipaul was born on August 17, 1932 in Trinidad into an Indian Hindu family. He grew up in relative poverty before moving to England aged 18 after receiving a scholarship to University College, Oxford.
He wrote his first novel while at Oxford University but it was not published and he battled with depression, even attempting suicide, during his struggling student days. He left university in 1954 and found a job as a cataloguer in London’s National Portrait Gallery. He subsequently settled in England, although he travelled extensively thereafter.
