Paul Mark Scott (25 March 1920 1 March 1978) was an English novelist best known for his tetralogy ''

The Raj Quartet ''The Raj Quartet'' is a four-volume novel sequence, written by Paul Scott, about the concluding years of the British Raj in India. The series was written during the period 1965–75. ''The Times'' called it "one of the most important l ...

.'' In the last years of his life, his novel ''

Staying On ''Staying On'' is a novel by Paul Scott which was published by University of Chicago Press in 1977. It was the recipient of the 1977 Booker Prize. Background Paul Scott started writing his novel which was concluded and published in 1977. The ...

'' won the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

(1977). The series of books was dramatised by

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...

during the 1980s and won Scott the public and critical acclaim that he had not received during his lifetime. Born in suburban London, Scott was posted to India, Burma and Malaya during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. On return to London he worked as a notable literary agent, before deciding to write full time from 1960. In 1964 he returned to India for a research trip, though he was struggling with ill health and alcoholism. From the material gathered he created the novels that would become ''The Raj Quartet''. In the final years of his life he accepted a visiting professorship at the

University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a Private university, private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian Church, although it is now nondenominational, and the campus ...

, where much of his private archive is held.

Early life

Paul Scott was born at 130 Fox Lane in the district of

Palmers Green Palmers Green is a suburban area and electoral ward in north London, England, within the London Borough of Enfield. It is located within the N13 postcode district, around north of Charing Cross. It is home to the largest population of Greek Cy ...

/ Southgate, in North London, the younger of two sons. His father, Thomas (1870–1958), was a Yorkshireman who moved to London in the 1920s with family members from Headingley. He was a commercial artist, specialising in drawing for calendars and cards. Scott's mother, Frances, née Mark (1886–1969) was the daughter of a labourer from south London. In later life Scott noted the tension in himself between the pull of his mother's creative ambition and his father's real world, grounded approach to life.Spurling, Hilary. (23 September 2004
"Scott biography
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' Scott was educated at the private Winchmore Hill Collegiate School, but had to leave early, without any qualifications, as his father's business met financial difficulties.Paul Scott: An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Center
Harry Ransom Center. Accessed August 7, 2022. This division from his studies was mirrored through the rest of his life—the battle between the demands of practical needs versus the urge to create. Scott worked as an accounts clerk for C. T. Payne and took evening classes in book-keeping and wrote poetry in his spare time. He later noted that the rigid social hierarchies and codes of his suburban childhood he found echoed in British Indian society.

Military service

Scott was conscripted into the British Army as a private soldier early in 1940, ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Literature in English'' (1996) p. 601 with the British Intelligence Department. He trained as a private in

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignt ...

with the 8th Battalion, the

Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army traditionally raised in the English county of Kent and garrisoned at Canterbury. It had a history dating back to 1572 and ...

. During this time two of his aunts were killed in an air raid. In 1943, at the age of 22, Scott was posted as a

commissioned officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), or a warrant officer. However, absent ...

in the

British Indian Army The Indian Army was the force of British Raj, British India, until Indian Independence Act 1947, national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and ...

, and he sailed on the ''Athlone Castle'' from Liverpool that year.Banerjee, Jacqueline "Paul Scott," ''Writers and Their Work''. Plymouth: Northcote House/British Council, 1998. p. 11-16. He quickly came down with

amoebic dysentery Amoebiasis, or amoebic dysentery, is an infection of the intestines caused by a parasitic amoeba '' Entamoeba histolytica''. Amoebiasis can be present with no, mild, or severe symptoms. Symptoms may include lethargy, loss of weight, coloni ...

, not diagnosed until 1964. The disease may have had some effect on his character and writing. He joined the

Indian Army Service Corps The Indian Army Service Corps (IASC) is a Corps, administrative corps and an arm of the Indian Army which handles its Military logistics, logistic support function. It is the oldest and the largest administrative service in the Indian Army. Whil ...

and became familiar with life at hill stations such as

Abbottabad Abbottabad is a city in the Hazara Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. It is the 40th largest city in the country and 6th largest in the province by population, and serves as the headquarter of its namesake tehsil and district ...

and

Murree Murree () is a mountain resort city in the northernmost region of the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. Lying in the Galyat region of the Pir Panjal Range under the western Himalayas, it forms the outskirts of the Islamabad–Rawal ...

. He made many close friendships with Indian comrades, and literary portraits of his friends appear in his works from this point. He later helped to organise the logistic support for the Fourteenth Army's reconquest of Burma. After the fall of

Rangoon Yangon, formerly romanized as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar. Yangon was the List of capitals of Myanmar, capital of Myanmar until 2005 and served as such until 2006, when the State Peace and Dev ...

in 1945 he spent time in Calcutta and Kashmir, later posted to Malaya to end the Japanese occupation; they had, however, already surrendered by the time Scott arrived. In his time away from India he missed the country deeply and longed to return. At the end of the year he rejoined his company at Bihar and sailed back to England, having spent three years in India. During his service, he continued to write poetry.

Career

In 1941, before his military posting, Scott had published a collection of three religious poems entitled ''I, Gerontius'', as part of the Resuram Series of pamphlets. He wrote for ''Country Life'' and ''The Times''. His work was included in ''Poetry Quarterly'' and the poetry anthology ''Poems of this War'' (1942). In 1948 he published ''Pillars of Salt'' in a collection of ''Four Jewish Plays.'' After demobilisation in 1946, Scott was employed in the two small publishing houses, Falcon Press and Grey Walls Press, headed by the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

MP Peter Baker. In 1950 Scott joined Pearn, Pollinger & Higham as a literary agent (later to split into Pollinger Limited and David Higham Associates) and subsequently became a director. He was described as caring and dedicated in his work: "a prince among agents". Whilst there, authors he covered included Arthur C. Clarke,

Morris West Morris Langlo West (26 April 19169 October 1999) was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels ''The Devil's Advocate (West novel), The Devil's Advocate'' (1959), ''The Shoes of the Fisherman (novel), The Shoes of the Fi ...

, M. M. Kaye,

Elizabeth David Elizabeth David ( Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992) was a British cookery writer. In the mid-20th century she strongly influenced the revitalisation of home cookery in her native country and beyond with articles and books about Europea ...

Mervyn Peake Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was a British writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the '' Gormenghast'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived ...

and

Muriel Spark Dame Muriel Sarah Spark (; 1 February 1918 – 13 April 2006). was a List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. Life Muriel Camberg was born in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh, the daughter of Bernar ...

. One biographer notes that as an agent, Scott "sheltered nervous talents, supported frail ones, pruned back bogus growth, detected and cherished genuine achievement in the wildest and most undisciplined bolters." Scott's first novel, ''Johnny Sahib'', met with 17 rejections from publishers. It was eventually released in 1952, coming to win the Eyre & Spottiswoode Literary Fellowship Prize. He continued to work as a literary agent to support his family, but managed to publish regularly. ''The Alien Sky'' (US title, ''Six Days in Marapore'') appeared in 1953, and was followed by ''A Male Child'' (1956), ''The Mark of the Warrior'' (1958), and ''The Chinese Love Pavilion'' (1960). He also wrote radio plays for the BBC: ''Lines of Communication'' (1952), ''Sahibs and Memsahibs'' (1958) and ''The Mark of the Warrior'' (1960). In 1960 Scott walked away from his steady job as an agent and decided to become a full-time author. He played with various geographic settings in ''Bender'' (1963) and ''Corrida at San Feliu'' (1964) with uneasy results. Funded by his publishers, Heinemann, Scott flew to India in 1964, in a last ditch effort to found a career as a successful novelist and, thereby, solvency. He drew there material for his next five novels, all set in India during and immediately after World War II, in the period leading to independence and Partition. For him, the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

was his extended metaphor. He wrote "I don't think a writer chooses his metaphors. They choose him." During his stay in Bombay he was hosted by Dorothy Ganapathy, whom he was close to for the rest of his life. He spent time in rural Andhra Pradesh with military comrades. His long standing gastric illness was exacerbated by the visit to India, and on his return he had to undergo painful treatment, but afterwards felt better than he had for many years and began to write. In June 1964, aged 43, Scott began to write '' The Jewel in the Crown'', the first novel of what was to become ''The Raj Quartet'' (1966). The remaining novels in the sequence were published over the next nine years: ''

The Day of the Scorpion ''The Day of the Scorpion'' is a 1968 novel by Paul Scott, the second in his '' Raj Quartet''. It is set in India during World War II as the influence of the British erodes. The novel focuses on old Raj family, the Laytons, the aftermath of the ...

'' (1968), '' The Towers of Silence'' (1971) and '' A Division of the Spoils'' (1975). Scott wrote in relative isolation and only visited India twice more during the genesis of ''The Raj Quartet'', in 1968 and in 1972, latterly for the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

. He worked in an upstairs room at his home in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

overlooking the garden and

Hampstead Garden Suburb Hampstead Garden Suburb is a suburb of London, north of Hampstead, west of Highgate and east of Golders Green. It is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations. It is an example of early twentieth-century ...

woodland. He supplemented his earnings from his books with reviews for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', the ''

Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'', ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'' and '' Country Life.'' Scott's daughter noted, "It was as if he had exiled himself to the one room where there was nothing but the typewriter and the blank page... It was the making of him as a writer, but the unmaking of him as a human being."Ackerman, Karl. "Paul Scott: A Life of the Author of the Raj Quartet", ''The Smithsonian'', February. 23: 11 (February 1993) In 1976 and 1977, the last two years of his life, Scott was invited to be a visiting professor at the

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. The financial offer was a great relief after his endless financial anxieties of his writing career. The University of Texas supported the author by offering to buy his manuscripts. His coda to ''The Raj Quartet'', ''

'', was published in 1977, just before his second visit to Tulsa. ''Staying On'' won the ''

Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire, although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

'' Fiction Award and the

in 1977. Scott was too unwell to attend the Booker ceremony in November 1977.

Adaptations

showed ''Staying On'', with

Trevor Howard Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage and screen actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved leading man star status in the film '' Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by '' The Third M ...

and

Celia Johnson Dame Celia Elizabeth Johnson (18 December 1908 – 26 April 1982) was an English actress, whose career included stage, television and film. She is especially known for her roles in the films ''In Which We Serve'' (1942), ''This Happy Breed ...

as Tusker Smalley and his wife Lucy. The success of its first showing in Britain in December 1981 encouraged Granada to embark on the much greater project of making ''

'' into a major 14-part television series known as '' The Jewel in the Crown'', first broadcast in the United Kingdom in early 1984 and subsequently in the United States and many

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

countries. It was rebroadcast in the UK in 1997 as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Indian independence, and in 2001 the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

voted it 22nd in the all-time best British television programmes. It was also adapted as a nine-part

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

dramatisation under its original title in 2005.

Legacy

While Scott was teaching creative writing at the University of Tulsa in 1976, he arranged to sell his private correspondence to that university's McFarlin Library, thus making available some 6,000 personal letters. The materials begin in 1940, when Scott was enlisted in the British Army, and end only a few days before his death on 1 March 1978. In the David Higham Collection at the

Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...

at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

can be found Scott's correspondence with clients Arthur C. Clarke, M. M. Kaye,

, children's author Mary Patchett, Peter Green,

Gabriel Fielding Alan Gabriel Barnsley (pen name Gabriel Fielding, 25 March 1916 – 27 November 1986) was an English novelist whose works include: ''In the Time of Greenbloom'', ''The Birthday King'', ''Through Streets Broad and Narrow'' and ''The Women of Gui ...

and

John Braine John Gerard Braine (13 April 1922 – 28 October 1986) was an English novelist. Braine is usually listed among the angry young men, a loosely defined group of English writers who emerged on the literary scene in the 1950s. Early life John Bra ...

Hilary Spurling Susan Hilary Spurling ( Forrest; born 25 December 1940) is a British writer, known for her work as a journalist and biographer. Early life and education Born in Stockport, Cheshire, to circuit judge Gilbert Alexander Forrest (1912–1977) and t ...

wrote a full biography of Scott in 1991. Janis Haswell edited a two-volume collection of Scott’s letters; ''Volume I, The Early Years (1940–1965)'' covers the military period of his life and the first stage of his career, before the quartet of novels was published. ''Volume II, The Quartet and Beyond (1966–1978)'' covers the end of his life."Behind Paul Scott's Raj Quarter"
''Harvard Review'', 10 October 2013

Personal life

In Torquay in 1941 Scott met and married his wife Penny (born Nancy Edith Avery in 1914). At the time she was a nurse at the Rosehill Children's Hospital; she later wrote four novels as Elizabeth Avery between 1959 and 1963; she died in 2005. They had two daughters, Carol (born 1947) and Sally (born 1948). Towards the end of his life, Scott stated to his doctor that he was "eating little, sleeping less, and drinking a quart of vodka a day." Writer Peter Green wrote of his meeting with Scott: "In 1975, though still only in his mid-fifties, he was a dying man, and knew it. He was "an alcoholic wreck." Scott's wife Penny had supported him throughout the writing of ''

'', despite his heavy drinking and violent behaviour, but once it was complete she left him and filed for divorce. In 1977, while he was in Tulsa, Scott was diagnosed with

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...

. He died at the

Middlesex Hospital Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...

in London on 1 March 1978.

References

External links

''A Paul Scott Chronology''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Paul 1920 births 1978 deaths Military personnel from the London Borough of Enfield Booker Prize winners British Army personnel of World War II Writers from British India British Indian Army officers Deaths from colorectal cancer in England People from Southgate, London Novelists from London 20th-century English novelists English male novelists 20th-century English male writers Intelligence Corps soldiers Indian Army personnel of World War II 20th-century English poets