Paul Scott (novelist) and John Braine. Extensive collection of letters to correspondents and their responses, University of Tulsa McFarlin Library Paul Scott (novelist) Paul Mark Scott (25 March 19201 March 1978) was an English novelist, playwright, and poet, best known for his monumental tetralogy "The Raj Quartet." His novel "Staying On" won the Booker Prize for 1977. Paul Scott was born in Palmers Green, in Southgate, London, then in Middlesex, the younger of two sons. His father, Thomas (1870–1958), was a Yorkshireman who moved to London in the 1920s and was a commercial artist specializing in furs and lingerie. His mother, Frances, née
Room at the Top (1959 film) which in the novel he has arranged beforehand (in the film, his friend Charlie arranges it soon after they meet). In the book, the room is itself significant, and is strongly emphasised early in the story; Mrs Thompson's room is noted as being at "the top" of Warley geographically, and higher up socially than he has previously experienced. It also serves as a metaphor for Lampton's ambition to rise in the world. Producer James Woolf bought the film rights to the novel, originally intending to cast Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons. Vivien Leigh was originally offered the part of Alice,