Willie

When I was becoming a teenager and beginning to take notice of things, I discovered W.Somerset Maugham. There was a vogue for his plays on TV, all mint juleps and cicadas. In the back streets of my industrial town which were my only experience, these scenarios seemed unbelievably exotic. In my wildest dreams I couldn't have imagined that one day I'd follow in Maugham's footsteps and see some of these places for myself.

Tonight the man behind the stories was beautifully revealed in a monologue written by Maugham's biographer, Anthony Curtis and acted by Anthony Smee - late of Miss Marple, Eastenders, Midsommer Murders, Casualty and every other soap and soapy programme on TV.

At the Mill Studio next to the Yvonne Arnaud theatre in Guildford, the atmosphere was created with a few well chosen props and the superb delivery and characterisation by the excellent Mr. Smee. A thoroughly enjoyable evening as, speaking in the first person, he took us through the life and times of Maugham, known affectionately by his friends as Willie. Maugham's stammer was portrayed with delicacy and brought the character alive. As well as being a prolific writer, inveterate traveller and something of a bon viveur, he was also a special agent for the government during two world wars.

He died in 1965, aged 91, in Nice, not far from his beloved Villa Mauresque at the Cap Ferrat.

One reviewer paraphrased Edward Lear ~


How splendid to meet Mr Maugham!
Who wrote such volumes of stuff!
Some thought him snobbish and queer,
But a few found him pleasant enough.

Late edit: sorry forgot the credit. Sketch by Ronald Searle 1954.