V. S. Naipaul in conversation with Geordie Greig

Nobel laureate and giant of Western letters, V. S. Naipaul has travelled extensively throughout India, Africa, South America and the Caribbean, examining the legacy of colonialism on the Third World, unravelling the guilt of the rulers and the self-serving myths of the ruled. Naipaul's latest book, The Masque of Africa: Glimpses of African Belief, is a travelogue in which the author sets out to discover how far the old Africa's belief in magic has been subverted by the outside world.

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IQ2 videos

John Gimlette on 'the great and the goofy'.

13 min 27 sec
Pico Iyer on travel writing, globalisation, and the Dalai Lama

1 hr 1 min

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V. S. Naipaul

Best articles & links on the web

The Masque of Africa, glimpses of African belief, by V.S. Naipual

Review by Aminatta Forna, The Guardian, Aug 2010

"V. S. Naipaul is often blinkered but he still sees things in Africa that others miss. Does his newest work cement his position as ‘the heir to Joseph Conrad?"
V.S. Naipaul’s absence has lost this parliament credibility

Hari Kunzru, The Guardian, Nov 2010

Writing from the first session of the European Writers’ Parliament in Istanbul, Hani Kunzru asks whether V. S. Naipaul should have been excluded for his past statements on Islam. Asking for a repeal of article 301 of the Turkish penal code which makes it an offense to insult the Turkish state, he suggests that divergent views are to be welcomed and celebrated, not excluded.
The Art of Fiction no.154, interviewing V.S. Naipaul

Jonathan Rosen, The Paris Review, May 1994

The interview is culled from a series of conversations in New York City and India. Part of the interview was conducted at the Carlyle Hotel on May 16, 1994. Naipaul spent several minutes rearranging the furniture in the hotel suite in an effort to locate the chair best suited to his aching back. He has the habit of removing glasses before answering a question, though that only enhances his scrutinizing expression and attitude of mental vigilance. The occasion for the interview was the publication of A Way in the World, but despite an initial wish to “stay with the book,” Naipaul relaxed into a larger conversation that lasted several hours and touched on many aspects of his life and career.
On Being a Writer

V. S. Naipaul, The New York Review of Books, Apr 1987

I had worked hard for the scholarship to go to Oxford, to be a writer. But now that I was in Oxford, I didn’t know what to write about. And really, I suppose, unless I had been driven by great necessity, something even like panic, I might never have written. The idea of laying aside the ambition was very restful and tempting – the way sleep was said to be tempting to Napoleon’s soldiers on the retreat from Moscow.
Nobel Lecture

V. S. Naipaul, 7 Dec 2001

Sir V. S. Naipaul delivers his Nobel Lecture in Börssalen at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, 7 December 2001. He was introduced by Horace Engdahl, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy.