V.S. NAIPAUL was born in Trinidad in 1932. He came to England on a scholarship in 1950. He spent four years at University College, Oxford, and began to write, in London, in 1954. He pursued no other profession. 
His novels include 
A House for Mr Biswas, 
The Mimic Men, 
Guerrillas, 
A Bend in the River, and 
The Enigma of Arrival. In 1971 he was awarded the Booker Prize for 
In a Free State. His works of nonfiction, equally acclaimed, include 
Among the Believers, 
Beyond Belief, 
The Masque of Africa, and a trio of books about India: 
An Area of Darkness, 
India: A Wounded Civilization and 
India: A Million Mutinies Now. 
In 1990, V.S. Naipaul received a knighthood for services to literature; in 1993, he was the first recipient of the David Cohen British Literature Prize. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. He died in 2018.