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Colin Grant on VS Naipaul

Episode 5 of 5

Trinidad-born Nobel laureate VS Naipaul began his career working in radio for the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½. It is also where writer Colin Grant met him half a century later.

Nobel laureate Naipaul began his career working in radio for the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½, and it is also where writer Colin Grant met him towards the end of his life half a century later. How had the giant of Trinidadian literature changed during that time since being told to "write like a West Indian" and quickly becoming the precocious editor of Caribbean Voices? This polemical exploration celebrates his contributions, as well as examining his many contradictions.

Seventy-five years ago, the revolutionary Caribbean Voices strand was established on the Overseas Service by trailblazing Jamaican broadcaster Una Marson. Every week for over a decade, it gave exposure on radio to emerging writers from the region such as Sam Selvon, Derek Walcott and George Lamming - many for the first time. Delving into the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s Written Archives, five writers go in search of five important figures who contributed to the programme throughout the 1940s and 50s, each of whom changed the literary landscape in a different way. This series is part archival treasure hunt, part cultural history and part personal reflections on the people behind a landmark institution.

Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

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14 minutes

Last on

Fri 2 Jul 2021 22:45

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