Naipaul’s sisters ‘being kept in the dark’ about funeral by widow

THE sister of the late author Sir VS Naipaul has claimed that the details of her brother’s funeral are being kept a secret.

Trinidad-born British writer Naipaul, who died on Saturday in London, aged 85, was awarded the Booker prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature during his distinguished career.

In an exclusive interview from her Trinidad home, Savi Akal, 80, said that the three surviving siblings – she and her sisters Nalini Chapman, 66, and Mira Enalsingh, 82 – had not been told anything about arrangements for their brother’s funeral. Mrs Akal said it seemed his birth family was being kept in the dark. Naipaul never held a funeral for his first wife, Pat, she said, so it may be that he did not request one.

Mrs Akal last saw Naipaul at his London flat in April, when the family celebrated her 80th birthday with him and his wife, Lady Nadira Naipaul. She said the family had heard through the grapevine that attendance at his funeral would be by invitation only.

The Daily Telegraph was unable to reach Lady Naipaul for comment.

Since hearing of her brother’s death, she has been listening to BBC radio news for any word of his funeral, and claimed that Lady Naipaul, her sisterin-law of 20 years, had not communicated with any of the sisters. Mrs Akal said: “After the news on Saturday we have not had a word from her. Nalini, in Scotland, has not been told anything since. Mira in the US, neither. We do not know if there is going to be a funeral. We do not know if our brother wanted a funeral. His wife knows where we are living. She should be telling us.” Mrs Akal added that she had emailed Lady Naipaul but had received no reply.

When Mrs Akal last saw Naipaul, who left the family in Trinidad aged 18 for Oxford University, she asked him how he would like to be remembered. “He told me that his work must live on. That was his final wish.”