In a Free State is set in Africa, in a place like Uganda or Rwanda, and its two main characters are English. They had once found liberation in Africa. But now Africa is no longer safe, and at a time of tribal conflict they have to make a long drive to the safety of their compound.

At the end of this drive - the narrative tight, wonderfully constructed, the formal and precise language always instilled with violence and rage - we know everything about the English characters, the African country, and the Idi Amin-like future awaiting it.

This is one of VS Naipaul's greatest novels, hard but full of pity. It won the Booker Prize, in its original edition, in 1971.