Anthony Curtis (1) (1926–2014)

Anthony Curtis' book offers a wonderfully informative pictorial biography of the famed author and playwright Somerset Maugham. One outstanding feature of the book is its photographs, which trace Maugham's long life (1874 - 1965), from his birthplace (the British Embassy in Paris) to his final years in his beloved Villa Mauresque, on the French Riviera. Among the > 100 illustrations are photographs and painted portraits of Maugham himself from throughout his life, as well as his friends and show more compatriots (including Winston Churchill, HG Wells, Gerald Haxton, and Hugh Walpole, whom he used as the basis for a character in Cakes and Ale), as well as his wife Syrie and his daughter Liza. Likewise, we see the places that figured importantly in his life -- King's School of his boyhood, St. Thomas' Hospital, where he trained for a medical career, a street scene of Lambeth, the location for his first novel Liza of Lambeth), Tahiti, which he visited in preparation for writing The Moon and Sixpence), and publicity photographs and stage views of several of his plays as well as the movie made from his famous novel The Razor's Edge. The accompanying text traces Maugham's long life and career, and does so with accuracy, respect, and a level of detail quite sufficient for most readers. While several detailed biographies of Somerset Maugham are available (including Selina Hastings' recent The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham), Anthony Curtis' book offers something none of them can -- a superb, heavily- illustrated overview of Somerset Maugham's life and career in the context of the times in which he lived. show less