About the book: 2024 / The hero of this book was one of the most talented and successful English writers of the 20th century. Although he led a completely orderly and even measured life, it turned out to be bright and eventful, there was a lot of things in it - love and hate, friends and enemies, meetings and travel, but most importantly - a lot of creativity. They say about people like him - a self-made man - a person who made himself. Before becoming a writer, Maugham worked as a doctor, participated in the First World War, and, having gained fame in the literary field, tried himself as an agent of British intelligence, and in this capacity he managed to visit Russia at the height of the revolutionary events of 1917. Somerset Maugham's plays are still on the stage today; his novels have become classics. The appendix to the biography of the famous writer presents his travel sketches, translated by the author of the book.