• Paperback
• Condition: Good
• 429 pages
• Non-Fiction: Biography

William Somerset Maugham went to a lot of trouble to ensure that no biography of himself could be written. Ever in terror of disrespectful leaks, he left strict directives with his Literary Executor and organised 'bonfire nights' of letters and unpublished writings. It brought him a good deal of attention - most of it unfriendly.

As doctor, spy, homosexual, husband, father, nonegenarian and one of this century's most admired and successful writers, he was, in any case, an extraordinary man. By nature aloof, imperious and emotional, he was a curious mixture of kindness and cruelty, a writer frightened only of his own psyche. 

Robert Calder provides a sympathetic portrait of the stammering and elusive individual behind the austere persona. With the active cooperation of Maugham's secretary and companion, Alan Searle, he identifies the writer's central fear of being exposed as a homosexual, and discusses his disastrous marriage and later unedifying public squabbling with his family.