On V.S. Naipaul's visit to Trinidad in honour of his 75th birthday year, Jeremy Taylor wonders, “Why did he fall for it…given his well-known disdain for his once-native land? It can only be that he enjoys performing. I hate this idea of the writer as a sort of circus, being trundled around the place by publishers or wellwishers as if he was some sort or oracle dispensing instant wisdom.”