Selina Hastings

I read a bit of Maugham in my teens and early twenties and this memoir had been on the shelf a while, nudged off after reading Tan Twan Eng's wonderful [The House of Doors] which has Maugham as a central character.

Maugham said of his writing that he had no imagination, he was just a storyteller, reshaping the stories of lives he knew or had heard about. And he did it very well. Writing was the most important thing in his life, it was where he didn't compromise. Three hours with the pen every morning. At the outset he was a playwright, then a short story writer, then a novelist. He also wrote essays and memoir. When he felt he ran out of steam in any of these he would simply stop doing them. He had stories backed up in his head, sometimes bubbling over years.

Because he was sometimes uninterested in disguising the source of his characters, he often got in hot water, although many people were flattered even to have some of their dirty linen aired in public.

He had an unhappy childhood, homosexual in an era it was not accepted, so happiness in itself was not something he expected to enjoy, although as long as he could write and travel, there was much happiness to be had, and becoming a successful creative he became a very wealthy man, and was very generous with that wealth.

Trapped into a marriage that lasted for many years, he was a father and grandfather. Although at the end of his life due to the interference of the man who for many years had been his secretary, the relations with his daughter had been strained, for quite a long period before that she and her family had been part of his life.

Maugham had a great capacity for friendship, and was a connoisseur of style and art. He died in his mid-80s in France, where he had a home. His ashes are buried in Cambridge, UK.

I have volume 1 of his collected short stories out of the library, and aim to read them through the winter. His most famous story 'Rain' is very fine.… (meer)

This story follows the story of King Arthur, his knight Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady. King Arthur receives help from the Loathly Lady that saves his kingdom, but in return he must find one of his knights to marry the lady. Sir Gawain accepts and says he will help his king and marry her. They are married and because Sir Gawain is able to answer the Loathly Lady's question, that women's greatest desire is to have their own way, her spell is broken and she is no longer forced to be loathly but instead her true beautiful self. This book has great illustrations and has wonderful vocabulary and vivid descriptions.… (meer)