World Literary Awards

← Back to Home

Paul Mark Scott

ポール・マーク・スコット

Pōru Māku Sukotto

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1920-03-25 （Palmers Green, London, England）
Died
1978-03-01 （Middlesex Hospital, London, England） age 57
Nationality
British
Languages
English
Residence History
Palmers Green, North London → Hampstead, London → Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA

Career

Occupations
novelist, literary agent, visiting professor
Active Years
1941-1978
Influenced By
E. M. Forster (often compared to)

Education

Winchmore Hill Collegiate School
Country: United Kingdom
Left early due to family circumstances; did not obtain formal qualifications.

Awards

Booker Prize
1977
Work: Staying On
Organization: Booker Prize organization
Result: winner
Yorkshire Post Fiction Award
1977
Work: Staying On
Organization: Yorkshire Post
Result: winner
Eyre & Spottiswoode Literary Fellowship Prize
1952
Work: Johnny Sahib
Organization: Eyre & Spottiswoode
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Jewel in the Crown

1966 Fiction

Set in India around World War II, the novel explores the end of the British Raj and complex human relationships; it became the first volume of a tetralogy.

decline of empirecross-cultural conflictclass and power
Adaptations
  • [TV series] The Jewel in the Crown (TV series) (1984)

The Day of the Scorpion

1968 Fiction

A continuation that delves deeper into the unstable colonial society and its human dramas.

political upheavalindividual fate

The Towers of Silence

1971 Fiction

Third volume of the quartet, continuing the exploration of the dismantling colonial society and its characters' conflicts.

moral conflictinfluence of history

A Division of the Spoils

1975 Fiction

Final volume of the quartet, portraying the concluding fates of characters amid independence and partition.

independence and partitionresponsibility and consequence

Staying On

1977 Fiction

A coda to the Raj Quartet that quietly portrays an English couple remaining in post-independence India. Winner of the 1977 Booker Prize.

legacy and losscultural isolation
Adaptations
  • [TV film] Staying On (TV adaptation) (1980)

Johnny Sahib

1952 Fiction

An early work that faced many rejections before publication and later won a literary fellowship prize.

youthful strugglecultural observation

Bibliography

  • I, Gerontius (poems, 1941)
  • Johnny Sahib (1952)
  • The Alien Sky / Six Days in Marapore (1953)
  • A Male Child (1956)
  • The Mark of the Warrior (1958)
  • The Chinese Love Pavilion (1960)
  • Bender (1963)
  • Corrida at San Feliu (1964)
  • The Jewel in the Crown (1966)
  • The Day of the Scorpion (1968)
  • The Towers of Silence (1971)
  • A Division of the Spoils (1975)
  • Staying On (1977)

Adaptations

  • TV series 'The Jewel in the Crown' (1984)
  • TV adaptation 'Staying On'
  • BBC Radio 4 dramatisation (2005)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
detailed realist prosecalm, lucid narrationhistorical perspective incorporated into storytelling
Recurring Motifs
decline of empirecultural and personal misunderstandingsguilt and atonement

Health

  • amoebic dysentery
    1943 発症（診断は1964年）
    Reportedly affected his long-term health and possibly his writing.
  • alcoholism (severe)
    1970年代（進行）
    Severely damaged his personal life and health, affecting relationships and work.
  • colon cancer
    1977–1978
    Was the primary cause of his death in 1978.

Legacy

The Raj Quartet and its screen adaptations brought wide acclaim posthumously. His private correspondence archives at the University of Tulsa and the University of Texas are important resources for research.

Archives

  • McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa (Paul Scott papers)
  • Harry Ransom Center (David Higham Collection, correspondence and papers)

In Popular Culture

  • The TV series 'The Jewel in the Crown' was broadcast in the 1980s and has been widely rebroadcast and referenced.
  • Media adaptations continued, including a BBC Radio 4 dramatisation (2005).

Quotes

  • I don't think a writer chooses his metaphors. They choose him.
    Source: Attributed to Paul Scott (quoted in interviews/biographical material)
  • Probably only an outsider could have commanded the long, lucid perspectives he brought to bear on the end of the British Raj.
    Source: Hilary Spurling (biographical assessment)

Trivia

  • He sold his private correspondence to the University of Tulsa; the collection comprises some 6,000 letters.
  • His wife Nancy Edith Avery wrote novels under the pen name Elizabeth Avery.
  • He was too ill to attend the Booker Prize ceremony in 1977.