Book description
When war broke out in 1914, Somerset Maugham was dispatched by the
British Secret Service to Switzerland under the guise of completing a
play. Multilingual, knowledgeable about many European countries and a
celebrated writer, Maugham had the perfect cover, and the assignment
appealed to his love of romance, and of the ridiculous. The stories
collected in
Ashenden
are rooted in Maugham's own experiences as an agent, reflecting the
ruthlessness and brutality of espionage, its intrigue and treachery, as
well as its absurdity. William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and
lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School,
Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St.
Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success
of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth
, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage
, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the
publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence
his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame
as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with
acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several
short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays,
criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up
and A Writer's Notebook
. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived
there until his death in 1965
