..the loving attention that Scott devotes to detail, sensitivity to light and colour, and his determination to capture the many tones of his landscape and people give his romance a translucence and luminosity that is wondrous to behold. We owe him a debt of gratitude for offering us this way of seeing during this period in our history."
In 2015 Scott's collection of stories ''Leaving By Plane Swimming Back Underwater'' was published by Papillote Press. Alexander Lucie-Smith wrote in the ''
Catholic Herald
The ''Catholic Herald'' is a London-based Roman Catholic monthly newspaper and starting December 2014 a magazine, published in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and, formerly, the United States. It reports a total circulation of abo ...
'': "Scott’s writing resembles that fretwork familiar from decaying porches and window frames: intricate, almost rococo, and because Trinidad is such a multi-layered place, because nothing is simple, his style is perfectly suited to his subject. Scott comes nearest to any English language author I know to carrying off that difficult task of evoking a place that is real and at the same time completely other."
Scott's newest work, ''Dangerous Freedom'' (Papillote Press, 2021), is a historical novel that draws on the life story of
Dido Belle.
Selected awards and honours
* 1986:
Tom-Gallon Short-Story Award
* 1999:
Commonwealth Writers' Prize
Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...
Best Book (Canada & Caribbean), for ''Aelred's Sin''
* 2019: Elected as a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Bibliography
Novels
*''Witchbroom'' (
Allison & Busby
Allison & Busby (A & B) is a publishing house based in London established by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby in 1967. The company has built up a reputation as a leading independent publisher.
Background
Launching as a publishing company in Ma ...
, 1992, ;
Heinemann Caribbean Writers Series, 1993, ) – shortlisted for a Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book (1993); read on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
's ''
Book at Bedtime
''Book at Bedtime'' (''A Book at Bedtime'' until 9 July 1993) is a long-running radio programme that is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 each weekday evening between 22.45 and 23.00.
The programme presents readings of fiction, including modern classics, ...
'' (1993; adapted by
Margaret Busby, produced by
Marina Salandy-Brown
Marina Salandy-Brown FRSA, Hon. FRSL, is a Trinidadian journalist, broadcaster and cultural activist. She was formerly an editor and Senior Manager in Radio and News and Current Affairs programmes with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) ...
). 25th-anniversary edition,
Papillote Press, 2017.
*''Aelred's Sin'' (Allison & Busby, 1998, ) – winner of the
Commonwealth Writers' Prize
Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...
Best Book in Canada & Caribbean (1999).
*''Night Calypso'' (Allison & Busby, 2004, ) – shortlisted for a Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book in Canada & the Caribbean (2005).
*''Light Falling on Bamboo'' (
Tindal Street Press
Tindal Street Press was a Birmingham-based independent publisher of contemporary literary fiction, with a particular focus on writers born, or living, in Birmingham and the West Midlands. According to its website, it was "a publicly funded organi ...
, 2012, ).
*''Dangerous Freedom'' (Papillote Press, 2021, ).
Short stories
*''Ballad for the New World'' (Heinemann Caribbean Writers Series, 1994, ) – includes the story "The House of Funerals" (
Tom-Gallon Trust Award, 1986).
*''Leaving by Plane Swimming Back Underwater'' (Papilotte Press, 2015; )
Non-fiction
*''Golconda: Our Voices Our Lives'' (UTT Press, 2009), editor.
Further reading
*
Aiyejina, Funso, 2003. "Self Portrait – Lawrence Scott novelist, short story writer and poet in conversation with Funso Aiyejina" (interview conducted 16 August 1998, Maraval, Port-of Spain), ''Trinidad and Tobago Review'' 20, no. 12, December 1998, pp. 10–11, 14–16, 19.
* Ferguson, James. 2000. "The Worlds of Lawrence Scott – beatprofile", ''
Caribbean Beat
''Caribbean Beat'', founded in 1992, is a bimonthly magazine, published in Port of Spain, Trinidad, covering the arts, culture and society of the Caribbean, with a focus on the region's English-speaking territories. It is distributed in-flight by C ...
'', No. 43 May/June 2000, pp. 48–52.
*
Maes-Jelinek, Hena, "Lawrence Scott's Caribbeanness: A personal reading of ''Witchbroom'' and ''Aelred's Sin''", ''The Literary Criterion'' 35, 2000.
See also
*
Caribbean literature
Caribbean literature is the literature of the various territories of the Caribbean region. Literature in English from the former British West Indies may be referred to as Anglo-Caribbean or, in historical contexts, as West Indian literature. Most o ...
*
Caribbean poetry
Caribbean poetry is vast and rapidly evolving field of poetry written by people from the Caribbean region and the diaspora.
Caribbean poetry generally refers to a myriad of poetic forms, spanning epic, lyrical verse, prose poems, dramatic poet ...
*
Postcolonial literature
Postcolonial literature is the literature by people from formerly colonized countries. It exists on all continents except Antarctica. Postcolonial literature often addresses the problems and consequences of the decolonization of a country, especia ...
References
External links
Lawrence Scott's website.Press release University of the West Indies.
* Stewart Brown
"The Worlds of Lawrence Scott" ''The Caribbean Voice'' profile.
* Andrew Johnson
"NAME IN THE FRAME: Mysterious Caribbean artist who inspired Lawrence Scott's novel" ''Camden New Journal'', 8 November 2012.
"Lawrence Scott reads at Paper Based book store Normandie Hotel, Trinidad" YouTube video.
* Gemma Bowes
"Writer Lawrence Scott on Trinidad: carnival, calypso and ecotourism" ''The Guardian'', 24 April 2015.
* Njelle W. Hamilton
"On Memory and the Archives of Caribbean History — A Conversation with Lawrence Scott" ''Wasafiri'', 2017.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Lawrence
1943 births
Living people
Trinidad and Tobago novelists
British writers
20th-century novelists
21st-century novelists
Trinidad and Tobago non-fiction writers
Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to the United Kingdom
20th-century short story writers
21st-century short story writers
Trinidad and Tobago male writers
20th-century male writers
21st-century male writers
Male non-fiction writers