*Note: What Naipaul actually said was, ‘Sadly, I reject Mrs Macmillan’s consolation that electricity will put an end to “the long dark evenings in which … the only possible recreation is sex.” Electricity or no electricity, there will soon be two million Jamaicans. It is hard to see what anyone can do except eat more Jamaican bananas without complaining. And perhaps – who knows? – a banana a day will keep the Jamaican away.’ (New Statesman, 4 Jan., 1958)