He was the greatest writer of our age and it was billed as his final farewell. But next week’s memorial for novelist Sir Vidia Naipaul at the National Portrait Gallery has been postponed due to the spread of coronavirus.
Publishers from all over the world were invited to gather on Friday, March 13th to pay homage to the Nobel laureate and Booker prize winner whose work has been translated into 34 languages and who died, aged 85, in 2018.
Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons had agreed to give a special reading.
British author and Nobel Prize winner Sir V.S. Naipaul died aged 85 in August 2018
A family friend tells me: ‘Nothing ever stopped Vidia from his intrepid travels, be it a revolution in Iran and witchcraft in Africa or even genteel uprisings in Wiltshire. So it’s entirely understandable that it would have to take something as dramatic as a pandemic pestilence to postpone his final farewell.’
Next week’s memorial for novelist Sir Vidia Naipaul at the National Portrait Gallery has been postponed
V. S. Naipaul penned more than 30 books, including The Enigma Of Arrival and A House For Mr Biswas, and was knighted in 1990. Born and brought up in poverty in Trinidad — which he later said was ‘a great mistake’ as he didn’t like the climate or the heat or the loudness and felt he was in the wrong place — he won a government scholarship to read English at Oxford’s University College, where he suffered a nervous breakdown.
The service was being organised for next Friday by his widow Nadira, a distinguished Pakistani writer who protects his legacy with lioness-like grit and charm.
His last book, Grief, about the death of his beloved cat Augustus, is being published posthumously.
Naipaul had a famously understated wit, once teasing Salman Rushdie by describing Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1989 fatwa on the author as ‘an extreme form of literary criticism’.
His last book, Grief, about the death of his beloved cat Augustus, is being published posthumously. Pictured: Vs Naipaul and his wife Nadira Naipaul
Jamie Horn and Sheridan Smith
Sheridan’s baby name dilemma: Storm… or Colin?
Pregnant actress Sheridan Smith is having difficulty choosing a name for her unborn son.
‘We were thinking of naming him after my dad but my dad’s name was Colin. As much as we miss and love him, there are cooler names in the world such as Storm and River,’ Sheridan tells me at Pretty Woman: The Musical at the Piccadilly Theatre. where she was flanked by fiance Jamie Horn.
She insists she will return to work as soon as the baby arrives in spring. ‘I’m chomping at the bit,’ Sheridan admits.
Actress Caroline Quentin, 59
Actress Caroline Quentin, who turns 60 this year, says she doesn’t mind growing old. ‘Not at all,’ she says. ‘I’m actually looking forward to it. Life at the moment feels fantastic. I’m working, I’m healthy, Sam and I have three amazing children. Bring it on!’
Her husband, Sam Farmer, is 12 years her junior, but she says people no longer make a fuss about the age gap. ‘They did when we first got together, but that’s over 20 years ago.
‘It’s strange, isn’t it? If the age gap was the other way around, nobody would be bothered — but if a woman goes out with a younger man, he becomes her toyboy.
‘I don’t think people care about stuff like that any more. I’ve got friends in their 30s and friends in their 80s. Age doesn’t matter.’
Charles digs around to replace head gardener
More from Sebastian Shakespeare for the Daily Mail…
AS HEAD gardener for Prince Charles’s beloved Highgrove home, Debs Goodenough has become one of the women closest to the heir to the throne.
But after 12 years’ devoted service, the talented Debs is stepping down and an advertisement for a new head gardener to replace her has appeared on the royal website. ‘The Royal Garden at Highgrove was created by the Prince of Wales over 40 years ago,’ it says. ‘The unique flora and fauna are managed in harmony with nature to reflect the Prince’s commitment to organic and sustainable principles.’
Goodenough is credited as being behind the success of the stunning grounds. There are intimate corners such as a memorial to his Jack Russell, Tigga, and a bench in two of the Queen Mother’s favourite colours.
Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, who has penned eight official commissions since his appointment last May, has yet to receive his stipend of 600 bottles of sherry. ‘They are coming year-on-year so there hasn’t been a whole consignment arriving by articulated lorry,’ he tells me. The bottles will eventually mature in Armitage’s garden shed, which he is currently using to record a podcast. ‘I already have a few bottles of ‘trainer sherry’ there. I’m sharpening my palate.’
Tilda is her girl’s hero
She has played everything from the White Witch in The Chronicles Of Narnia to the mother of a teenage killer in We Need To Talk About Kevin.
Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, who received the Fellowship of the British Film Institute this week, once even assumed a male guise, playing Orlando in an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel.
Accompanying her to the celebratory dinner was her daughter Honor, 21, whose trousers sported images of the most androgynous star of them all — David Bowie.
Tilda, who bears a striking resemblance to the singer, collaborated with him on his video The Stars (Are Out Tonight).
Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton with her daughter Honor, 21, (right)
Actress Miriam Margolyes is truly conflicted. ‘I’m happy with my face, but I’m disgusted by my body,’ she says. ‘I’ve been on diets all my life. It’s a constant battle. If I could migrate my personality and my face onto another body, I’d be delighted. Whose body? Claudia Winkleman’s!’
Jude Law’s model daughter Iris made her catwalk debut yesterday at Paris Fashion Week
Iris glitters in gold at Paris debut
Those lucky breaks just keep on coming. Jude Law’s model daughter Iris made her catwalk debut yesterday at Paris Fashion Week. As the face of Burberry Beauty, Iris is one of the country’s most sought-after young models but has never appeared in a fashion show before.
Wearing a 1980s style dress with a cummerbund waist in yellow gold and black chiffon overlay, the 19-year-old goddaughter of Kate Moss walked the Miu Miu runway alongside Kaia Gerber on the final day of the autumn/winter shows.
‘I’m so happy that Miu Miu is the first ever show I’m walking in,’ said Iris, who took her A-levels in philosophy, English literature and art last year. ‘One of my first ever modelling jobs was for Miu Miu. I was blown away by the whole experience.’
CHEERS! Princess Eugenie’s husband, Jack Brooksbank, is toasting record profits at his wholesale drinks business.
New accounts for Jack Brooksbank Ltd disclose a profit of £42,000 for the year to August 2019 — to take the net worth of the company to £70,000. It’s the most profitable year so far for the business, which was established in 2016. In 2018, it made £13,000.
Jack is also an ambassador for Casamigos, the tequila brand created by Hollywood star George Clonney and Rande Gerber, husband of supermodel Cindy Crawford.