Entertaining Dr Murdock – Shiva Naipaul Prize, 2000

The Spectator/ Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for the year 2000 was won by Mary Wakefield. The judges included Antony Beevor; Patrick Marhnam; Boris Johnson, then editor of the magazine; and Mark Amory, who was and still is the Spectator’s literary editor. Mary is now Deputy Editor of the Spectator.

The Shiva Naipaul prize is awarded for travel writing, and other past winners include Hilary Mantel, Miranda France and John Gimlette. To learn more about the prize and how you can enter, click here.

Entertaining Dr Murdock
Mary Wakefield

There’s a narrow road heading east out of Denton, Texas, across the hot dust and prickly yellow grass. It runs straight as a red-neck’s gun barrel, passing after three miles through a huddle of run-down trailers, one squat, modern-looking church and a scattering of tiny brick houses; then on into a point on the horizon.

By the side of the road, opposite the church, sits a woman in a wedding dress, her white satin shoes covered with reddish dirt.