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 la ...

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

Staying On ''Staying On'' is a novel by Paul Scott, which was published in 1977 and won the Booker Prize. Plot summary ''Staying On'' focuses on Tusker and Lucy Smalley, who are briefly mentioned in the latter two books of the Raj Quartet, '' The Towe ...

'' won the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

(1977). The series of books was dramatised by

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the 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 but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was its ...

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, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. 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 research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin to ...

, where much of his private archive is held.

Early life

Paul Scott was born at 130 Fox Lane in the district of Palmers Green/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, with the British Intelligence Department.''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century Literature in English'' (1996) p. 601 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 Paig ...

with the 8th Battalion, "The Buffs." 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, or a warrant officer. However, absent contex ...

in India, 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, colonic u ...

, 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 and an arm of the Indian Army which handles its logistic support function. It is the oldest and the largest administrative service in the Indian Army. While the history of supply and transport serv ...

and became familiar with life at hill stations such as

Abbottabad Abbottabad (; Urdu, Punjabi language(HINDKO dialect) آباد, translit=aibṭabād, ) is the capital city of Abbottabad District in the Hazara region of eastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the 40th largest city in Pakistan and fourt ...

and

Murree Murree (Punjabi, Urdu: مری) is a mountain resort city, located in the Galyat region of the Pir Panjal Range, within the Muree District of Punjab, Pakistan. It forms the outskirts of the Islamabad-Rawalpindi metropolitan area, and is about ...

. 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 Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. After the fall of

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

in 1945 he spent time in Calcutta and Kashmir, later posted to Malaya to rout 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; times of great tension and conflict for the country. During his time of 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 that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

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. Clark,

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'' (1959), '' The Shoes of the Fisherman'' (1963) and ''The Clowns of God'' (1981). His books were pub ...

M. M. Kaye Mary Margaret ('Mollie') Kaye (21 August 1908 – 29 January 2004) was a British writer. Her most famous book is ''The Far Pavilions'' (1978). Life M. M. Kaye was born in Simla, British India, and lived in an Oakland, Shimla, a heritage proper ...

Elizabeth David Elizabeth David CBE (born Elizabeth 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 bo ...

Mervyn Peake Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was an English 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. 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, 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 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 Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...

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 ''The Towers of Silence'' is the 1971 novel by Paul Scott that continues his '' Raj Quartet''. It gets its title from the Parsi Towers of Silence where the bodies of the dead are left to be picked clean by vultures. The novel is set in the Bri ...

'' (1971) and ''

A Division of the Spoils ''A Division of the Spoils'' is the 1975 novel by Paul Scott. It is the fourth and final book of his '' Raj Quartet''. The novel is set in the British Raj. It follows on from the storyline in '' The Jewel in the Crown'', '' The Day of the Scorp ...

'' (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 lan ...

. He worked in an upstairs room at his home in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the London Borough o ...

overlooking the garden and

Hampstead Garden Suburb Hampstead Garden Suburb is an elevated 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 twentie ...

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

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'', 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'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'' 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: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

. 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 Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...

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 in 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, film, and television actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved star status with his role in the film ''Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by ''T ...

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 Bree ...

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. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

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 film-making 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 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 ...

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 (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) 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 for the p ...

at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

can be found Scott's correspondence with clients

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...

, Muriel Spark, 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. Hilary Spurling 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. Later she became a novelist herself. 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 bowe ...

. 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 London Booker Prize winners British Army personnel of World War II Writers in British India British Indian Army officers Deaths from cancer in England Deaths from colorectal cancer People from Southgate, London Writers 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