Naipaul, Theroux and the witch-doctor

The row between VS Naipaul and the travel writer Paul Theroux has flared up again. In an article in this month's Tatler, Nadira, Sir Vidia's fiery second wife, reveals that on a recent trip to Uganda she and her Nobel Prize-winning husband visited an African witch-doctor and came very close to asking him to put a curse on Theroux.

Sir Vidia, 76, fell out with Theroux when he published an account of his friendship with the Trinidadian-born writer in 1999 - one reviewer described the book as an "uninterrupted excoriation of Naipaul and his Nadira". Theroux, the father of the TV presenter Louis Theroux, went on t say that VS was "deeply unlikable, a grouch, a skinflint, tantrum-prone an with race on the brain".

Recalling her and her husband's encounter with the witch-doctor, Nadira (pictured with Sir Vidia) writes: "He [the witch doctor] looks at VSN [her husband]. Does he want to be rejuvenated? Or is someone in the way? Is there someone we wish to get rid of? I can think of many who are in the way, starting with the wretched two-timing biographers." The second biographer she alluded to is Patrick French, who also annoyed Naipaul and his wife.

Nadira also describes going with her husband to the Ugandan university where he had been the writer-in-residence 40 years ago. "It was here that he met a man who was himself trying to be a writer. He [Naipaul] doesn't now name him but I know he means an American who is obsessed with VSN and who hates me with the tenacity of a hornet with a squint."

All this prompted a swift reaction from Theroux. On being informed of how close he came to having a curse placed on him, he told the Sunday Times: "Witch-doctors are colourful only to tourists, belittlers and stereotypers like Mr and Mrs Naipaul. A real witch-doctor might have found Mrs Naipaul a suitable case for treatment."

His conclusion might be apposite. As the Naipauls left the witch-doctor - without paying him any money - he called out to Nadira saying she was "a wicked woman and beyond juju of any kind".