Somerset Maugham, puppy-throwing and teenage boys on the French Riviera...

A new biography details how Maugham, who also spied for Britain, lavished attention on his gay lovers at the expense of his wife and child. 

Maugham was one of the most successful writers of the 20th century and chronicled the declining years of the British Empire in books such as Of Human Bondage as well as working as a spy in Moscow during the Russian revolution, helping inspire Ian Flemming, creator of James Bond.

(...)

Liza Maugham, later Lady Glendevon, who died in 1998, recorded her thoughts about her father with a view to writing a memoir which never materialised. 

They remained hidden until transcripts were tracked down to the south of France by Selina Hastings, who has written Maugham’s first authorised biography. Full story...

Don't miss:

1. 91-year-old woman in Scotland to borrow her 25,000th. book from library!!!
2. Teacher sacked for writing novel...
3. The destruction of the Jaffna Tamil Library in Sri Lanka, a cultural genocide...