Meny
Portrait image of W. Somerset Maugham Photo: 1929 Bassano/Camera Press / TT

Sample of authors

Maugham, W. Somerset

William Somerset Maugham was a British author born in Paris. His father was a lawyer at the British Embassy there. When Maugham was eight years old, his mother died of tuberculosis, two years later his father died of cancer and the boy was sent to live with his uncle, the Vicar of Whitstable in Kent. Maugham suffered from a serious stammer, he was shy and avoided speaking in public; unlike his...

Further reading

Portrait image of Josephine Tey Photo: Sasha/Hulton Archive/Getty Images (1934)

Sample of authors

Tey, Josephine

Josephine Tey (the author of popular mystery novels) and Gordon Daviot (a well-known English playwright between 1933 and 1952) were one and the same: the pseudonyms of the reserved, at times even diffident, Scottish author Elizabeth Mackintosh. Little is known about her life; not even the year of her birth can be determined exactly. It was previously believed that she was born in 1897, but it...

Further reading