57 “To me the very shape of England” A Writer’s Notebook, 128.
58 “She made me feel a brute” Looking Back, 64.
59 “There are no candles” WSM to Gerald Kelly, nd, HGARC.
60 “There was one German prisoner” A Writer’s Notebook, 75.
61 “Conversation mingled with groans” Ibid., 78.
62 “Mais non, mon vieux” Looking Back, 63.
63 “I saw a battle between aeroplanes” WSM to Alfred Sutro, nd, private collection.
64 “I was lucky enough” WSM to William Heinemann, December 27, 1914, Random House.
65 “I had done no work of this kind” A Writer’s Notebook, 76.
66 “The war had a most important influence” William Somerset Maugham: The English Maupassant, 14.
67 “We are either rushed off our legs” WSM to M. L. Fleming, nd, Jenman.
68 “It makes sightseeing a matter” WSM to Gerald Kelly, nd, HGARC.
69 “The work was hard and tedious” A Writer’s Notebook, 82.
70 “When I remarked on it” William Somerset Maugham: The English Maupassant, 5.
71 “She took no notice” Looking Back, 64.
CHAPTER 7: CODE NAME “SOMERVILLE”
1 “I’m sorry, but is there anything else” Conversations with Willie, 18.
2 “From you or from life?” Ibid., 20.
3 “[he] charmed the birds from the trees” Arthur Marshall interview with Robert Calder, Jenman.
4 “jolly and delightful” The Listener, February 7, 1974.
5 “very masculine … with a hard tarty face” Peter Quennell interview with Robert Calder, Jenman.
6 “He had an air of dissipation” Up at the Villa, 17.
7 “without anyone knowing anything” Looking Back, 64.
8 “It is bitterly cold here” WSM to William Heinemann, February 10, 1915, Random House.
9 “If only I am able to write” WSM to Gerald Kelly, February 1, 1915, HGARC.
10 “She took it as the most natural thing” Looking Back, 68.
11 “She cried bitterly” Ibid.
12 “I am very glad to know” WSM to Al Hayman, June 10, 1915, Fales.
13 “a dazzling icy glitter” Theatrical Companion to Maugham, 8.
14 “mercilessly amusing” New Statesman, October 6, 1923.
15 “one of the most brilliant plays” Short View of the English Stage, 107.
16 “various rumours” Theatrical Companion to Maugham, 122.
17 “She was very amusing” Looking Back, 65.
18 “Pearl: I wish you wouldn’t call me girlie” Plays, vol. III, 63.
19 “[Mr. Maugham] and Mrs. Wellcome” Wellcome Library collection.
20 “I was at a loose end” Looking Back, 69.
21 “You’d be a fool to marry her” Ibid., 74.
22 “If we were married” Conversations with Willie, 35.
23 “Tu n’as pas encore perdu” Amoureuse: Théâtre d’Amour, tome III, Georges de Porto-Riche (Albin Michel, 1928), 87.
24 “It positively made my blood run cold” WSM to Gerald Kelly, November 12, 1915, HGARC.
25 “You will be doubtless seeing her” Ibid., February 28, 1916.
26 “The whole matter has been a great distress” WSM to F. H. Maugham, March 12, 1916, HRHRC.
27 “I have never had such an enormous success” WSM to F. H. Maugham, March 12, 1916, HRHRC.
28 “Light as a feather” Sunday Times, February 13, 1916.
29 “Cooper: Well, ma’am, my belief” Plays, vol. III, 158.
30 “If you do well” Ashenden, 4.
31 “I know nothing so tedious as coding” Ibid., 215.
32 “as orderly and monotonous” Ibid., 109.
33 “Geneva, the centre of all rumours” WSM to Gerald Kelly, November 12, 1915, HGARC.
34 “it was absurd to think” Ashenden, 108.
35 “had been doing us down” Secret Service: The Making of the British Intelligence Community, Christopher Andrew (Heinemann, 1985), 152.
36 “[Ashenden] gave him his orders” Ashenden, 19.
37 “no more than a tiny rivet” Ibid., 7.
38 “I wanted to recover my peace of mind” The Summing Up, 192.
39 “I was willing to marry Syrie” Looking Back, 75.
40 “There is a great deal of sympathy” WSM to Gerald Kelly, October 15, 1916, HGARC.
41 “[to look] for beauty and romance” The Summing Up, 193.
42 “I was convinced that by going to Tahiti” Looking Back, 76.
43 “On a journey by sea” Ibid., 90.
44 “not a tramp, not a sailing vessel” A Writer’s Notebook, 90.
45 “it is an empty desert” The Trembling of a Leaf, 14.
46 “a more devoted, generous” WSM to Klaus Jonas, August 29, 1956, HRHRC.
47 “hot lallapalooza from Honolulu” The Two Worlds of Somerset Maugham, 307.
48 “rather handsome travelling companion” Ibid., 316.
49 “I entered a new world” The Summing Up, 193.
50 “I rarely went to my ship’s cabin” Wilmon Menard, After Dark, December 1975.
51 “from a hint or an incident” The Summing Up, 195.
52 “the writer cannot afford to wait” WSM to Michael Watkins, July 4, 1954, private collection.
53 “[Mrs. Woodrow] spoke of the depravity” A Writer’s Notebook, 94.
54 “to have Sadie [Thompson]” The Two Worlds of Somerset Maugham, 108.
55 “After supper we went on deck” A Writer’s Notebook, 96.
56 “a flat-nosed, smiling dark native” Ibid., 117.
57 “‘How much will it cost?’ I asked” Ibid., 118.
58 “the first completely beautiful” Glenway Wescott interview with Robert Calder, Jenman.
59 “he was noisy and boastful” Up at the Villa, 28.
60 “But for him I should never have got” Looking Back, 90.
61 “a sheer masterpiece of sardonic horror” Saturday Review, November 5, 1921.
62 “One of the evil limitations” James Michener to Klaus Jonas, February 13, 1905, HRHRC.
63 “There is no object more deserving of pity” The Moon and Sixpence, 160.
64 “I felt that I had been put” Looking Back, 97.
65 “who first sentenced the drunk” Saturday Review, October 14, 1961.
66 “I do not know whether it is intended” WSM to William Wiseman, July 7, 1917, Jenman.
67 “It was tantalizing” WSM to Gerald Kelly, September 25, 1917, HGARC.
68 “Mr. Somerset Maugham is in Russia” Wiseman mss file 90-42, E. M. House Collection, Yale University Library.
69 “In his cold and uninteresting way” Ashenden, 220.
70 “I realized that I could not count” Looking Back, 80.
71 “[Kerensky] looked very unhealthy” A Writer’s Notebook, 165.
72 “in the middle of his speech” Six Red Months in Russia, Louise Bryant (Heinemann, 1918), 117.
73 “I’ve never seen a man” Glenway Wescott interview with Robert Calder, Jenman.
74 “With Sasha acting as hostess” Looking Back, 82.
75 “I am receiving interesting cables” W. Somerset Maugham and the Quest for Freedom, 282.
76 “The endless talk when action was needed” The Summing Up, 197.
77 “I felt homesick” A Writer’s Notebook, 154.
78 “I am longing for news” WSM to Edward Knoblock, October 1, 1917, Berg.
79 “we in the Hotel Europa” Spy and Counterspy, Emanuel Victor Voska (Doubleday, Doran, 1940), 232.
80 “You won’t reveal you had lunch” www.ochcom.org.
81 “Delightful lunch with Willie Maugham” Hugh Walpole ms diary, HRHRC.
82 “I am very sensual” Ibid.
83 “He watched Russia as we would watch a play” “William Somerset Maugham,” Hugh Walpole, Vanity Fair, 1920.
84 “the secret agent of reactionary imperialism” American Espionage: From Secret
Service to CIA by Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones (Collier Macmillan, 1977), 96.
85 “I must make the Russian soldiers understand” WSM to Wiseman, November 18, 1917, Wiseman mss, Yale University Library.
86 “I can’t do that” Looking Back, 85.
87 “I fear this [is] of only historical interest” Private Secretary Archives 1917–24: Balfour, FO 800/205, Public Record Office.
88 “I failed lamentably” The Summing Up, 196.
89 [I thought] that it was only sensible” Looking Back, 86.
CHAPTER 8: BEHIND THE PAINTED VEIL
1 “I delighted in the privacy” The Summing Up, 197.
2 “There is something that would appeal” WSM to Edward Knoblock, February 24, 1918, Berg.
3 “The post is always the great thrill” WSM to Alfred Sutro, nd, private collection.
4 “Meant to be nothing” WSM to Paul Dottin, nd, HRHRC.
5 “a play so negligible” New Statesman, October 6, 1923.
6 “a very truthful account” WSM to Paul Dottin, nd, HRHRC.
7 “[Willie’s] mysterious bosses” A. S. Frere to Ted Morgan, March 11, 1978, Jenman.
8 “[Maugham] often spoke” Kenneth Clark to Robert Calder, December 29, 1981, Jenman.
9 “They desired the end” Ashenden, 263.
10 “He was travelling with a brand-new passport” Ibid., 171.
11 “The modern spy story began” New York Times Book Review, September 13, 1981.
12 “The Ashenden stories were certainly” Maugham, 313.
13 “Ashenden is unique” Raymond Chandler to WSM, January 13, 1950, HRHRC.
14 “a specimen of Somerset Maugham” New York Times, April 15, 1928.
15 “We find they are nothing” Vogue (London), July 20, 1928.
16 “a strange outcome for a series” WSM to Desmond MacCarthy, nd, Lilly.
17 “What will happen in the future” WSM to M. L. Fleming, nd, Jenman.
18 “[as] I should have thought” Hugh Walpole ms diary, HRHRC.
19 “They must be very pleasant” The Moon and Sixpence, 212.
20 “I am always sure” Sunday Times, January 24, 1954.
21 “hackneyed and vulgar beyond belief” The Moon and Sixpence, 66.
22 “had the true instinct” Ibid., 213.
23 “We must be shown something” Athenaeum, May 9, 1919.
24 “I am making my plans” WSM to Gerald Kelly, October 14, 1918, HGARC.
25 “He wasn’t nasty about it” Listener, February 7, 1974.
26 “in which all the characters” Plays, vol. V, vi.
27 “gave dinner parties to end all” Glenway Wescott interview with Ted Morgan, Jenman.
28 “I had naturally bad taste” Kate Bruce, unpublished ms, private collection.
29 “Syrie simply didn’t understand” Conversations with Willie, 33.
30 “You have driven me to talk to you” Looking Back, 100.
31 “I didn’t have a voice in it” Listener, February 7, 1974.
32 “I think that if Syrie hadn’t fallen in love” Glenway Wescott interview with Ted Morgan, Jenman.
33 “I was forty-three when we married” Looking Back, 100.
34 “[Willie] looks ill and bored” Hugh Walpole ms diary, HRHRC.
35 “The difference between men and women” Plays, vol. III, 235.
36 “style, wit, elegance” Times, September 1, 1919.
37 “succeeded in turning herself” Gladys Cooper, Sheridan Morley (Heinemann, 1979), 79.
38 “more or less unconsciously” Ibid., 79.
39 “gives you everything” WSM to Robin Maugham, June 10, 1937, HRHRC.
40 “You have thrust your hideous inventions upon us” On a Chinese Screen, 95.
41 “At its foot were a number” Ibid., 106.
42 “an experience that really enriches the soul” WSM to Robin Maugham, June 10, 1937, HRHRC.
43 “one of the pleasantest places” WSM to David Horner, June 15, 1935, HRHRC.
44 “very nasty smells” On a Chinese Screen, 88.
45 “I have got a good deal of material” WSM to Golding Bright, January 12, 1920, HRHRC.
46 “p. 124 I am inclined to criticize” WSM to H. I. Harding, October 7, 1921, private collection.
47 “His descriptions are not so much natural” Saturday Review, January 13, 1923.
48 “the only novel I have written” The Painted Veil, ix.
49 “He was self-conscious” Ibid., 26.
50 “Convivial amusement has always” The Summing Up, 76.
51 “willing to chatter all day long” The Painted Veil, 26.
52 “I seem to live in an atmosphere” Looking Back, 96.
53 “You are very pleasant to travel with” Ibid., 95.
54 “Syrie had a very heartless side” Glenway Wescott interview with Ted Morgan, Jenman.
55 “it was easy to be fascinated” Syrie Maugham, 47.
56 “Her hospitality did not spring” Childhood at Oriol, Michael Burn (Turtle Point Press, 2005), 242.
57 “a little dull and lacking in drama” Times, August 10, 1920.
58 “I was a little frightened of him” Liza Maugham in conversation with Pat Wallace, Frere Family Archive.
59 “I think he must have had a picture” Ibid.
60 “He never stammered” Ibid.
61 “There are only two courses” Looking Back, 95.
CHAPTER 9: A WORLD OF VERANDA AND PRAHU
1 “I cannot imagine that anything is likely” WSM to Fred Bason, September 28, 1923, Lilly.
2 “Words fail to describe” The Parade’s Gone By, Kevin Brownlow (Secker & Warburg, 1968), 277.
3 “the obscene Cecil” WSM to Edward Knoblock, August 17, 1921, Berg.
4 “I look back on my connection” Ibid.
5 “I was shoved roughly” Wilmon Menard, After Dark, December 1975.
6 “Say, this is the real life” A Writer’s Notebook, 177.
7 “more bother than you can imagine” WSM to Alanson, May 17, 1925, Stanford.
8 “If all else perish, there will remain” Sunday Times, December 19, 1965.
9 “He tells us—and it had not been said before” 100 Key Books of the Modern Movement, chosen by Cyril Connolly (Alison & Busby, 1986), 73.
10 “Most English households of the day” Pattern of Islands, Arthur Grimble (John Murray, 1969), 1.
11 “A sahib has got to act like a sahib” Collected Essays by George Orwell (Secker & Warburg, 1961), 19.
12 “a combination of awe, envy” A Writer’s Notebook, 213.
13 “Most people living in out-of-the-way places” The Casuarina Tree, 130.
14 “they were more lonely than in the jungle” First Person Singular, 10.
15 “They are bored with themselves” A Writer’s Notebook, 188.
16 “[Izzart] wondered whether” The Casuarina Tree, 216.
17 “to get a boy was easier” Britain’s Imperial Century, 1815–1914, Ronald Hyam (Batsford 1976), 137.
18 “The blinds on the verandah” The Casuarina Tree, 165.
19 “It was the elder of his two sons” Ibid., 201.
20 “had real trouble on their hands” The Two Worlds of Somerset Maugham, 36.
21 “The chief disadvantage for ladies” Handbook to British Malaya 1926, Capt. R. L. German MCS (Malay States Information Agency), 46.
22 “Crosbie grew very red” The Casuarina Tree, 293.
23 “[it] was clearly marked” The Memoirs of a Malayan Official, Victor Purcell (Cassell, 1965), 271.
24 “Some of the smaller communities” The Casuarina Tree, 309.
25 “It is interesting to try” Straits Budget, June 7, 1938.
26 “masterpieces of disloyalty” A Chime of Words, ed. Edwin Tribble (Ticknor & Fields, 1984), 86.
27 “I tried to make use of them” The Two Worlds of Somerset Maugham, 31.
28 “sitting over a siphon” The Gentleman in the Parlour, 32.
29 “I’m sorry, I’m
sorry” The Two Worlds of Somerset Maugham, 35.
30 “was suggested by a misadventure” The Casuarina Tree, 309.
31 “a bit dreary” Ah King, 185.
32 “I thought the best thing” A Writer’s Notebook, 184.
33 “a necessity, and if I am deprived” The Summing Up, 88.
34 “I have the greatest admiration for Racine” Ah King, 165.
35 “I am dreadfully put out” WSM to M. L. Fleming, October 10, 1921, Jenman.
36 “You are a wonderful friend” WSM to Bert Alanson, February 26, 1921, Stanford.
37 “You were as ever wonderfully good” Ibid., February 9, 1949.
38 “one of the very few” The Thread of Laughter, Louis Kronenburger (Knopf, 1952), 294.
39 “his technique is flawless” A Short View of the English Stage, James Agate (Herbert Jenkins, 1926), 86.
40 “One sacrifices one’s life” Plays, vol. IV, 78.
41 “[a] gift [that] sprang from a clear-sighted” New Statesman, October 6, 1923.
42 “The Circle is one of the best plays” Ibid., March 19, 1921.
43 “each separate tale is begun” Saturday Review, November 5, 1921.
44 “My short stories have been a very great success” WSM to Bert Alanson, January 28, 1922, Stanford.
45 “one of the most agreeable persons” WSM to Edward Knoblock, October 16, 1924, Berg.
46 “I think you have done a very clever thing” WSM to Gerald Kelly, May 5, 1920, HGARC.
47 “in their ill-fitting, ready-made clothes” A Writer’s Notebook, 171.
48 “restless, clownish, and intense” Paint and Prejudice, C.R.W. Nevinson (Methuen, 1937), 179–80.
49 “Thank you very much indeed” WSM to Edward Marsh, July 5, 1919, Berg.
50 “Heavens! you can’t be enjoying” Edward Marsh, Christopher Hassall (Longmans, 1959), 483.
51 “With the strength of a typhoon” The Glass of Fashion, Cecil Beaton (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1954), 204.
52 “She has exquisite taste” A Writer’s Notebook, 174.
53 “I have a notion that children” The Gentleman in the Parlour, 35.
54 “my constant companion” WSM to Reginald Turner, December 12, 1921, Craig V. Showalter Collection.
55 “I left England” Robin Maugham unpublished diaries, Beinecke.
56 “of attaching himself” Rebecca West interview with Robert Calder, Jenman.
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham Page 64