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'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.

As Maugham is not usually rated as a writer of crime novels, Up at the Villa is hardly ever considered to be a crime novel and accordingly can be found in bookshops among his other, " mainstream " novels.

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.

W. Somerset Maugham, who wrote over a hundred short stories, was one of the most popular authors of his time.

Maugham was one of the most significant travel writers of the inter-war years, and can be compared with contemporaries such as Evelyn Waugh and Freya Stark.

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

The most successful playwright of the era was W. Somerset Maugham.

Titled A Little Stone ( John Lehmann, London, August 1950 ), which excluded two of Bowles ' most famous short stories, " Pages From Cold Point " and " The Delicate Prey ", on the advice of Cyril Connolly and Somerset Maugham, that if they were included in the collection distribution and / or censorship difficulties might ensue.

Sutherland also painted a number of portraits, with one of Somerset Maugham ( 1949 ) the first and among the most famous.

Maugham himself spent many years in the Malay archipelago and was most certainly acquainted with the drink from his travels.

Maugham continued decorating, but had already completed her most famous and successful work.

It was done in collaboration with the pioneering British decorator, Syrie Maugham, and has some of the most iconic Surrealist works on display, including the large

The first prize was publication by Harper and Hughes garnered widespread critical acclaim with the book's release in September 1957, winning a Somerset Maugham Award.

After I, Claudius, he and the ex-patriate German film producer Erich Pommer founded the production company Mayflower Pictures in the UK, which produced three films starring Laughton: Vessel of Wrath ( US Title The Beachcomber ) ( 1938 ), based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham, in which his wife Elsa Lanchester co-starred ; St. Martin's Lane ( US Title Sidewalks of London ), about London street entertainers, which featured Vivien Leigh and Rex Harrison ; and Jamaica Inn, with Maureen O ' Hara and Robert Newton, about Cornish smugglers, based on Daphne du Maurier's novel, and the last film Alfred Hitchcock directed in Britain before moving to Hollywood in the late 1930s.

What he actually found in India and what he finally concluded are held back from the reader for a considerable time until, in a scene late in the book, Maugham discusses India and spirituality with Larry in a café long into the evening.

) Maugham himself visited Sri Ramana Ashram, where he had a direct interaction with Ramana Maharshi in Tamil Nadu, India in 1938.

American studios soon followed with films like Quartet ( 1948 ) based on stories by W. Somerset Maugham.

Variety said, " Never has W. Somerset Maugham play been done with greater production values, a better all-around cast or finer direction.

The director wanted to re-team Carroll with her 39 Steps co-star Robert Donat the following year in Secret Agent, a spy thriller based on a work by W. Somerset Maugham.

In 1922 following the death of Alice de Rothschild, The Pavilion was enlarged by her heirs, Dorothy and James A. de Rothschild ( they added a large wing with bedrooms and bathrooms ) and then let it to Syrie Maugham, an interior decorator who was the former wife of the novelist Somerset Maugham.

The main differences between Gauguin and Strickland are that Gauguin was French rather than English, and whilst Maugham describes the character of Strickland as being largely ignorant of his contemporaries in Modern art ( as well as largely ignorant of other artists in general ), Gauguin himself was well acquainted with and exhibited with the Impressionists in the 1880s and lived for awhile with Van Gogh in southern France.

Fleming undertook some minor experiments with the format, including a story written as an homage to an author he greatly admired, W. Somerset Maugham.

Somerset Maugham: Fleming was an admirer and paid homage to him with " Quantum of Solace "

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.

During this period he was also regularly in contact with English expatriate intellectuals living in Paris, such as W. Somerset Maugham, Arnold Bennett, and Clive Bell.

* Philip notices two chairs by the fireplace, each with an antimacassar in the fourth chapter of " Of Human Bondage " by W. Somerset Maugham.

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.

Some notable guests of the past included Empress Elisabeth of Austria ( Sisi ) and the German Emperor Wilhelm I with his chancellor Otto von Bismarck as well as Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, King Faisal I of Iraq, King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia and Iran's last king Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, industrialists like Wilhelm von Opel and artists like Heinrich Mann, Robert Stolz and W. Somerset Maugham.

The novel was later republished with a foreword by Maugham entitled A Fragment of Autobiography.