Maugham and Churchill
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/ashenden-the-perfect-late-summer-escape-read-and-a-classic/2019/07/31/f46290cc-afbf-11e9-8e77-03b30bc29f64_story.html
Just read a wonderful piece in today's Post by their equally wonderful book-reviewer, Michael Dirda. It regarded the heroics of "Ashenden," Somerset Maugham's pre-Bond British spy, first published in 1928.
Dirda cites a old rumor I'd not heard to the effect that, during WWII, Churchill vetoed Maugham's planned publication of 14 further short stories about Ashenden's spy service during WWI. "They were all burned."
I took to Google to see if I could substantiate the rumor. All I found was a 5-year-old London Telegraph piece, detailing Ashenden's brilliant author, Maugham, whose "time as a young doctor in the slums of London had disabused him of a belief in God. But behind the carapace of cynicism, the search for faith, or meaning without faith, would be a recurring theme in his life and work.
“ 'It may be that my heart, having found rest nowhere, had some deep ancestral craving for God and immortality which my reason would have no truck with,' he wrote in his memoir, 'Summing Up.'"
Never mind the Churchill rumor! I'm pleased to reacquaint myself with Maugham. Do try the Ashenden stories -- a great beach-read -- and enjoy the 2014 story about him:
articlehttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/11021495/Somerset-Maugham-and-the-guru.html
Just read a wonderful piece in today's Post by their equally wonderful book-reviewer, Michael Dirda. It regarded the heroics of "Ashenden," Somerset Maugham's pre-Bond British spy, first published in 1928.
Dirda cites a old rumor I'd not heard to the effect that, during WWII, Churchill vetoed Maugham's planned publication of 14 further short stories about Ashenden's spy service during WWI. "They were all burned."
I took to Google to see if I could substantiate the rumor. All I found was a 5-year-old London Telegraph piece, detailing Ashenden's brilliant author, Maugham, whose "time as a young doctor in the slums of London had disabused him of a belief in God. But behind the carapace of cynicism, the search for faith, or meaning without faith, would be a recurring theme in his life and work.
“ 'It may be that my heart, having found rest nowhere, had some deep ancestral craving for God and immortality which my reason would have no truck with,' he wrote in his memoir, 'Summing Up.'"
Never mind the Churchill rumor! I'm pleased to reacquaint myself with Maugham. Do try the Ashenden stories -- a great beach-read -- and enjoy the 2014 story about him:
articlehttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/11021495/Somerset-Maugham-and-the-guru.html