Paul Scott

He married Nancy Edith Avery, who was also known as ‘Penny’, in 1941. He had two daughters with her - Carol and Sally.

He was a bisexual by nature – it was reflected in his first novel of the ‘Raj Quartet’ series, ‘The Jewel in the Crown’.

It is believed that he was an alcoholic and would sometimes get very aggressive with his wife. It was this behavior of his, which eventually led to a divorce.

Paul Mark Scott was born on March 25, 1920 to Frances and Thomas Scott in Southgate, Middlesex. His father was a commercial artist and his mother, though socially inferior, had great artistic ambitions.

Young Scott studied at Winchmore Hill Collegiate School but he dropped out of the same because his father’s poor financial condition. He worked as an accounts clerk for C.T. Payne and in the evening, attended bookkeeping classes.

He enlisted to the British Army as a private, in 1940 and was directly assigned to the Intelligence Corps. Thus, began his journey in the army which would later become the subject for a number of his novels.

Paul Scott published his first collection of poems titled, ‘I, Gerontius’ in 1941, but during this time, he did not take his writing career seriously, since he was already conscripted to the army.

In 1943, he was posted as an officer-cadet to India, where he was commissioned. He ended the war as a Captain in the Indian Army Service Corps. It was during this time that he deeply and irrevocably fell in love with India.

He was employed as an accountant for two small publishing houses ‘Falcon Press’ and ‘Grey Walls Press’, in 1946. Four years later, he moved to the literary agent ‘Pearn, Pollinger & Higham’, where he subsequently became its director.

He published his first novel, ‘Johnny Sahib’, inspired by his experiences at war and in India, in 1952. Despite experiencing several pitfalls while writing the novel, he managed to get it printed and it received moderate success. The same year, he wrote a radio-play for BBC titled, ‘Lines of Communication’.

In 1953, he authored, ‘The Alien Sky’, which was also titled ‘Six Days in Marapore’. It was his second book. Three years later, he published a well-known book titled, ‘A Male Child’.

The ‘Raj Quartet’, a tetralogy was published from 1966-1974. The series consisted of the books, ‘The Jewel in the Crown’, ‘The Day of the Scorpion’, ‘The Towers of Silence’ and ‘A Division of the Spoils’. Largely considered to be his major works, the ‘Raj Quartet’ is regarded as an important masterpiece because of the kind of research that went into writing these novels.

From information related to political readers to child rape and the ‘Quit India’ movement, these four novels give a detailed insight into the events leading upto the collapse of the British Raj in India from the viewpoints of Hindus, Muslims and other characters. Of the four books published, ‘The Tower of Silence’ was the most successful one.

He authored ‘Staying On’, a finale, in 1977, which is also considered one of his best works. The same was adapted for a television film by Granada TV and paved the way for the television adaptation of ‘The Jewel in the Crown’. This is also considered one of his important works, because it won him the prestigious ‘Booker Prize’.