Maugham, W(illiam) Somerset 1874-1965
British writer

Born in Paris, France, of Irish origin, he was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and read philosophy and literature at Heidelberg in Germany. He qualified as a surgeon at St Thomas's Hospital, London, and a year's medical practice in the London slums gave him the material for his first novel, the lurid Liza of Lambeth (1897), and the magnificent autobiographical novel, Of Human Bondage, eventually published in 1915. Initial attempts to have his plays accepted failed, but four of them ran simultaneously in London in 1908. In 1914 he served first with a Red Cross unit in France, then as a secret agent in Geneva and finally in Petrograd (St Petersburg), attempting to prevent the outbreak of the Russian Revolution. Ashenden (1928) is based on these experiences. He also visited Tahiti and the Far East, which inspired The Moon and Sixpence (1919) and such plays as East of Suez (1922). In 1928 he settled in the south of France, where he wrote his astringent, satirical masterpiece, Cakes and Ale (1930). A British agent again in World War II, he fled to the USA (1940-46), where he ventured into mysticism with The Razor's Edge (1945). He is best known for his short stories - several of which were filmed, including Quartet (1949) - although his sparse, careful prose has sometimes unjustly been mistaken for superficiality. Other works include essays on Goethe, Chekhov, Henry James and Katherine Mansfield in Points of View (1958).

Bibliography: R Calder, Willie: the life of Maugham (1989); Strictly Personal (1941); Summing Up (1938)