Sir V. S. Naipaul, was born 17 August 1932. He is a Trinidad-born, Nobel Prize-winning, British writer known for his comic early novels set in Trinidad, his bleaker later novels of the wider world, and his autobiographical chronicles of life and travels. Naipaul has published more than 30 books, both of fiction and nonfiction, over some 50 years. Naipaul was married to Patricia Ann Hale from 1955 until her death in 1996. She served as first reader, editor, and critic of his writings. Naipaul dedicated his A House for Mr Biswas to her. He then married Nadira Naipaul, a Pakistani former journalist, in 1996.
He was knighted in 1989.
He was knighted in 1989.
His novels, set in developing countries, are known for their pessimistic and cynical tone, often referred to as "suppressed histories." He received the Nobel Prize in 2001 for his novel Half a Life, a story about an Indian immigrant to England and Africa. He has also written several works of non-fiction including An Area of Darkness (1965), India: A Wounded Civilization (1977) and Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey (1981), as well as travel writing and several essays.
Miguel Street is a collection of linked short stories by V. S. Naipaul set in wartime Trinidad and Tobago. The stories draw on the author's childhood memories of Port of Spain. The street of the title appears to be a fictionalized version of Luis Street where the author lived with his family in the 1940s.
Note: Trinidad and Tobago are two islands that make one country. While they both make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago now, they were a British colony in 1932 when Naipaul was born. They didn’t gain independence from Great Britain until 1962.
