SOURCE: Hensher, Philip. “A Perfectly Targeted Prize.” Spectator 287, no. 9037 (20 October 2001): 44-5.

In the following review, Hensher assesses Naipaul's literary achievements and deems him “a supremely deserving Nobel laureate.”

The best aspect of V. S. Naipaul's Nobel Prize is that, for once, the prize has not been influenced by any political considerations, and can only be taken as an acknowledgment of a great literary master. If ever there was a moment when external considerations might have discouraged the Nobel committee from rewarding the author of Among the Believers, that magnificently disdainful journey through Islam, this is it. They have, admirably, not taken that into account, and nobody can doubt that, for once, here is an author who is being rewarded for the only thing that matters, the quality of his work. He is a supremely deserving Nobel laureate.

In recent years, rows over his always audacious public pronouncements and...