He is an admirer of the work of W. Somerset Maugham, especially the Ashenden stories.

But I believe the modern writer who has influenced me most is Somerset Maugham, whom I admire immensely for his power of telling a story straightforwardly and without frills.

Maugham is a surname most commonly associated with the English literary family.

Maugham's masterpiece is generally agreed to be Of Human Bondage, a semiautobiographical novel that deals with the life of the main character Philip Carey, who, like Maugham, was orphaned, and brought up by his pious uncle.

* Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham is published

The Razor ’ s Edge is a book by W. Somerset Maugham published in 1944.

In Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham, the character Alroy Kear, believed to be a parody of Hugh Walpole, is a graduate of New College.

The screenplay by Howard Koch is based on the 1927 play of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham, originally filmed in 1929.

Among popular novelists Daphne Du Maurier wrote Rebecca, a mystery novel, in 1938 and W. Somerset Maugham ( 1874-1965 ) Of Human Bondage ( 1915 ), a strongly autobiographical novel, is generally agreed to be his masterpiece.

The metaphor of " Having an appointment in Samarra ", signifying death, is a rare literary reference to a short story of unknown origin transcribed by W. Somerset Maugham.

Mrs Craddock is a novel by William Somerset Maugham first published in 1902.

Secret Agent ( 1936 ) is a British film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on two stories in Ashenden: Or the British Agent by W. Somerset Maugham.

Capri is the setting for " The Lotus Eater " ( 1945 ), a short story by Somerset Maugham.

" This chapter is devoted to Ramana Maharshi, whom Maugham had at one time visited before Indian independence.

In 1969 Angela Carter used the proceeds of her Somerset Maugham Award to leave her husband and relocate for two years to Tokyo, Japan, where she claims in Nothing Sacred ( 1982 ) that she " learnt what it is to be a woman and became radicalised.

The Moon and Sixpence is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, told in episodic form by the first-person narrator as a series of glimpses into the mind and soul of the central character, Charles Strickland, a middle-aged English stockbroker who abandons his wife and children abruptly to pursue his desire to become an artist.

The economy of the island is dependent on its role as an administrative centre and is supported by pearling and fishing, as well as a fast-developing tourism industry, with perhaps the most famous tourists being novelist Somerset Maugham and Banjo Paterson.

He is a great-grandson of author William Somerset Maugham.

He is the author of six novels: the acclaimed Morvern Callar ( 1995 ), winner of a Somerset Maugham Award ; These Demented Lands ( 1997 ), winner of the Encore Award ; The Sopranos ( 1998 ), winner of the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award ; The Man Who Walks ( 2002 ), an imaginative and surreal black comedy ; The Worms Can Carry Me to Heaven ( 2006 ), and The Stars in the Bright Sky ( 2010 ), a sequel to The Sopranos.

Of Human Bondage ( 1915 ) is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham.

It is generally agreed to be his masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although Maugham stated, " This is a novel, not an autobiography, though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure invention.

The close-knit group included Haines and his partner Jimmie Shields, Alan Ladd, writer Somerset Maugham, director James Vincent, screenwriter Rowland Leigh, costume designers Orry-Kelly and Robert Le Maire, and actors John Darrow, Anderson Lawler, Grady Sutton, Robert Seiter and Tom Douglas.

* 1874 – W. Somerset Maugham, English writer ( d. 1965 )

*** Robin Maugham, English writer, the only son of the previous

** W. Somerset Maugham, English writer, best known of the Maughams.

Influenced by the published journals of the French writer Jules Renard, which Maugham had often enjoyed for their conscientiousness, wisdom and wit, Maugham published selections from his own journals under the title A Writer's Notebook in 1949.

In 1947 Maugham instituted the Somerset Maugham Award, awarded to the best British writer or writers under the age of thirty-five for a work of fiction published in the past year.

George Orwell said that Maugham was " the modern writer who has influenced me the most.

Another daughter, Gwendolyn Maud Syrie ( 1879 – 1955 ), known as Syrie like her mother, was married to wealthy businessman Henry Wellcome, and later to the writer Somerset Maugham, and became a socially prominent London interior designer in the 1920s and 1930s.

* December 16 – William Somerset Maugham, dramatist, novelist and short story writer

Fleming wrote the story in the style of W Somerset Maugham and this was Fleming's homage to a writer he greatly admired.

Boyd's novels include: A Good Man in Africa, a study of a disaster-prone British diplomat operating in West Africa, for which he won the Whitbread Book award and Somerset Maugham Award in 1981 ; An Ice-Cream War, set against the background of the World War I campaigns in colonial East Africa, which won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was nominated for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1982 ; Brazzaville Beach, published in 1991, which follows a female scientist researching chimpanzee behaviour in Africa ; and Any Human Heart, written in the form of the journals of a fictitious twentieth century British writer, which was long-listed for the Booker Prize in 2002.

In his biography of Somerset Maugham, writer Ted Morgan mentions that Hare, whom he refers to as " the last Victorian ," befriended Maugham who became a frequent guest at his country house, Holmhurst in Baldslow, Sussex.

After the 1930s, popular interest in Prokosch's writing declined, but he continued to write steadily and to solidify his reputation as a writer ’ s writer with an elite following that included Thomas Mann, André Gide, Sinclair Lewis, Albert Camus, Thornton Wilder, Dylan Thomas, Anthony Burgess, Raymond Queneau, Somerset Maugham, Lawrence Durrell, Gore Vidal, and T. S.

Often referred to by the writer W. Somerset Maugham.

In 1966 he wrote A Case of Human Bondage about the marriage and divorce of writer William Somerset Maugham and his interior-decorator wife, Syrie, which was highly critical of Maugham.

Mary Elizabeth Maugham Paravicini Hope, Baroness Glendevon ( born Mary Elizabeth Maugham ) ( 1915 – 1998 ) was the only child of English playwright, novelist, and short story writer W. Somerset Maugham and his then mistress, Syrie Wellcome.

Further productions for the BBC included a season of the crime drama Detective ( 1968 – 69 ) and a 26-part series of adaptations of the stories of William Somerset Maugham ( 1969 ).

Examples are Ashenden or: the British Agent ( 1928 ) by W. Somerset Maugham, about counter-revolutionary British espionage against Bolshevik Russia, and The Mystery of Tunnel 51 ( 1928 ) by Alexander Wilson whose novels conveyed an uncanny portrait of the first head of the Secret Intelligence Service, Mansfield Smith-Cumming, the original ' C '.

Bolton also wrote stage adaptations of novels by Henry James and Somerset Maugham, and wrote three novels on his own and a fourth in collaboration with Bernard Newman.

His other novels include Whore Banquets ( 1987 – winner of the 1988 Somerset Maugham Award, which was also won by his father in 1950 ; republished in 2002 as Mr. Foreigner ), Inside Rose's Kingdom ( 1989 ), Sweet Thames ( 1992 – winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize ), and When We Were Romans ( 2008 ).

In the 20th century, the comedy of manners reappeared in the plays of the British dramatists Noël Coward ( Hay Fever, 1925 ) and Somerset Maugham and the novels of P. G.

Paul Bailey's novels include At The Jerusalem ( 1967 ), which is set in an old people's home, and which won a Somerset Maugham Award and an Arts Council Writers ' Award ; Peter Smart's Confessions ( 1977 ) and Gabriel's Lament ( 1986 ), both shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction ; and Sugar Cane ( 1993 ), a sequel to Gabriel's Lament.

Gin pahit appears in several other Maugham stories, including " Footprints in the Jungle ", " The Book-Bag " and " The Letter " all set in Malaya, and in the novels " The Narrow Corner " ( opening line of Chapter xviii ), and in " The Outstation " ( Two Malay boys ,..., came in, one bearing gin pahits ,..).

Her novels include The Woman in Black, The Mist in the Mirror and I'm the King of the Castle for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award in 1971.

In 1958 Maugham stated in a CBC interview that Cakes and Ale was his favourite of all his novels.

Maugham collects together what he considers to have been the ten greatest novels and writes about the books and the authors.