Series of twenty autograph and typed letters ("Vidia"), to his fellow novelist Anthony Powell and his wife Violet, a warmly affectionate series acknowledging the support given him by Powell over the years, among his own works discussing In a Free State ("...now here is the melancholy thing about writing. I alone know how, in this profession which is all I now have, I have just ʻsqueaked through', having this bit of luck after flogging a little talent to death. Such luck doesn't come twice there is no question of ʻdoing another'. I know it is one of your truths that no one feels again as old as he does at 39. But I have been surprised by the feeling – still strong after an idle year – that I have no more to say. I find the whole thing very odd, this snapping of tension..."), The Middle Passage ("...The only review I have seen of The Middle Passage has been yours, and I am deeply moved by all the things you said... it is the sort of review which will enable to keep on making a living... but then the kindness you have shown me since my first book has always had this welcome practical side...") and Mr Stone and the Knight's Companion ("...What I have done is what you encouraged me many years ago to do: I have written a novel about England. Very short, and so unusual that I don't know whether it has any value or whether it is even publishable..."); Naipaul also lavishes praise on Powell's novels ("...A fan letter. I've been reading The Acceptance World again. I cannot tell the pleasure – much greater than before – it has given me. So enjoyable, so rich; so beguiling; so classical; so full of wisdom and gentleness and passion. The drive to Templer's house in the snow – there is in the language and the images the wonder and magic of a sonnet by Shakespeare – one of the less quoted, more original ones... Content must dictate form. Every true writer has to discern that; every writer has to write his own kind of book. What courage to have stuck to your own vision for so long, through such an undertaking...") as well as To Keep the Ball Rolling ("...The portraits of Orwell and Waugh are splendid: what a good point to make, about the simplicity of Waugh's view of people. What an achievement, after Dance, to do non-fiction, and to do it so brilliantly, in a way so unlike your novels... O How the Wheel came over to me as a book about age: active minds in old bodies. Funny, serious, stoical, capturing something quite special of you both as a man and a writer. Congratulations on both books..."); among other subjects covered being the death of his brother Shiva ("...He admired your work, though his concerns were so different. When, after the cremation, we went to his flat, I saw the half-shelf of your books in his sitting room; it was very moving...") and that of Cyril Connolly ("...There was much anguish the other evening at Sonia Orwell's about the obituary in The Times..."); 20 letters autograph, 9 typed; 5 to Lady Violet; plus two letters by his wife Pat, some 30 pages, 4to and 8vo, Trinidad, Malaysia, Wiltshire and elsewhere, 1958-1992