大象传媒

William Somerset Maugham was one of the most commercially successful English writers ever.

His plays, short stories and novels effortlessly sold in their millions; his work on stage, page and screen drew huge audiences.

Maugham remains the English writer most adapted for film and TV. And yet he described himself as possessing only a "knack" for writing and his place among the literary greats as being only "in the first row of the second rate". Despite his huge popularity with a mass audience, the literary establishment dismissed him as "middle brow".

The subjects he wrote about, and his complex and exotic lifestyle moulded the image of the successful 20th century writer - a wide circle of famous friends, a villa in the South of France, the adulation of readers across the globe and the ears of the Empire's leaders.

His own long life, too, reads like the plot for a novel. Born when Disraeli was Prime Minister, he died when the 60s were in full swing. He trained as a doctor, dedicated himself to being a writer, and spent time as a First World War spy. He travelled the globe in search of material for stories - chronicling the boredom, frustration and scandals of the colonial class of empire builders.

His private life was complicated. In England he seemed a pillar of the establishment, yet he set up an exotic and promiscuous lifestyle in a villa on the Cote d'Azur with a succession of gay lovers. His last years were marked by an extraordinary, toxic family quarrel, betrayal and a public fall from grace.

Simon Fanshawe examines the literary legacy and complex private lives of Maugham in the company of writers, performers, biographers and family members.

Producer: Mike Greenwood

Made for 大象传媒 Radio 4 Extra by Pier Productions and first broadcast in February 2015.