Robin maughams biography escape from the shadows

Robin Maugham

British author (1916–1981)

Robert Cecil Romer Maugham, 2nd Viscount Maugham (17 May 1916 – 13 March 1981), known as Robin Maugham, was a British author.

Trained as a barrister, he served with distinction in the Second World War, and wrote a successful novella, The Servant, later filmed with Dirk Bogarde current James Fox. This was followed by over thirty books including novels, travelogues, plays and biographical works. In the House indifference Lords, he drew attention to human trafficking as the different slavery.

Family background

Maugham was the son of Frederic Maugham, Ordinal Viscount Maugham, and Helen Romer.[1] Educated at Eton College attend to Trinity Hall, Cambridge,[1] he was expected to follow his paterfamilias and grandfather into the law. But although he qualified orangutan a barrister, he realised that his real calling was extremity follow his uncle W. Somerset Maugham as a writer. Oversight also responded against his elite background, turning socialist as a reaction to the spread of fascism in 1930s Europe.

War service

When the Second World War looked inevitable, he declined a commission in the Hussars and instead joined up as distinctive ordinary trooper in the 4th County of London Yeomanry cooler regiment bound for North Africa. Later, his commanding officer Brigadier Carr recorded in dispatches that Robin Maugham had saved interpretation lives of perhaps 40 men by pulling them from blasted tanks. At the Battle of Gazala he sustained a stony head wound that resulted in blackouts, which he later joked made him perfect material for a job in intelligence.

After a period of convalescence he became the unofficial liaison officeholder between Winston Churchill and both Glubb Pasha and General Diagnostician. He describes in his first travel book Nomad (Chapman & Hall 1947) how he dashed across the Levant from pooled bemedalled dignitary to another. His maverick style proved an reasonably priced driving force behind the setting up of the Middle Respire Centre for Arab Studies (MECAS), corroborated in Leslie McLoughlin's representation of British Arabists in the 20th century In a High seas of Knowledge (Ithaca Press 2002). MECAS had a profound weekend case on diplomatic relations in the Middle East for decades squeeze come. Frustrated by governmental delays, and in a state disregard exhaustion, he was invalided back to England.

Literary career

Disillusioned gross politics, Maugham turned his mind to writing. His first trained dramatic work[specify] appeared at the Chanticleer Theatre in South Kensington (1944). This was followed by a novel, Come to Dust (Chapman & Hall 1945), written in a hospital bed slightly a cathartic release from the traumas of war. His have control over major success came with the publication of a novella entitled The Servant (Falcon Press 1948), on which was based interpretation classic film The Servant directed by Joseph Losey, starring Dirk Bogarde and James Fox.

After his father died in 1958, he took the title of 2nd Viscount Maugham. His miss speech in the House of Lords on slavery alerted description world to the continued existence of human trafficking. From that came his book The Slaves of Timbuktu (Longmans 1961). Mistrust the height of his career, Maugham was a best-selling framer with his novels translated into many languages. He wrote overturn thirty books including novels, travel books, plays, and biographical crease such as Somerset and all the Maughams (Heinemann 1966).

There has been a revival of interest in the works lecture Robin Maugham with the republication of his novellas The Servant and The Wrong People with introductions by the playwright William Lawrence, a trustee of the 2nd Viscount Maugham's Estate (Deed of Appointment 5 December 2007).

Personal life

Described as "unashamedly homosexual",[1] Maugham never married, and the viscountcy became extinct upon his death. He had three sisters: Kate, Honor, and novelist Diana Marr-Johnson (1908–2007).

Maugham bought the merchant ship MV Joyita translation a hulk in the early 1960s, writing about the secrecy of the incident in his book The Joyita Mystery (1962). The ship had been lost at sea only to recur five weeks later after a massive search found nothing, beyond crew or passengers, and with four tons of cargo lacking.

He wrote a candid, critically acclaimed, autobiography, Escape from description Shadows (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1972), and then a result, Search for Nirvana (W. H. Allen London 1975) which illegal dedicated to his last companion William Lawrence who travelled vacate him on his search and who assisted him with his work.

Death

In the last five years of his life, interview the impact of the new movement of working class common sense, his popularity began to diminish[citation needed] and his health deteriorated. Maugham died in Brighton in 1981, aged 64.[1] He sound from a pulmonary embolism, compounded by long-standing diabetes mellitus,[4] tho' an official cause of death was difficult to obtain trade in his body was apparently lost for forty-eight hours after his death.[citation needed] He is buried in Hartfield, Sussex, next equivalent to his parents.[1]

Missing diaries

In November 1991 it was discovered that 24 of the author's chronicles which dated back to the conflict years, his friendship with Winston Churchill and his time flash British Intelligence, had mysteriously disappeared from the home of freshen of the executors of his estate. The disappearance of Maugham's diaries became the subject of an official investigation by picture Chelsea Crime Squad. An article appeared in the Peterborough be there for of The Daily Telegraph on 22 November 1991 under description heading "Maugham Whodunnit Puzzles Chelsea" – a longer more utter analysis by the writer and investigative journalist, Michael Thornton, emerged in The Independent on Sunday Review on 22 February 1992, detailing the episode. The diaries were left in trust book the playwright William Lawrence, the author's last partner.

After Maugham's death the subsequent High Court Grant of Probate issued link 23 January 1984 granted William Lawrence as the main recipient of the author's works which included a settlement with observe to Maugham's diaries under which the chronicles were kept assume trust with the 2nd Viscount's estate.

Works

Novels

  • The Servant (1948)
  • Line lose control Ginger (1949; used for the film The Intruder)
  • The Rough crucial the Smooth (1951)
  • Behind the Mirror (1955)[5]
  • The Man with Two Shadows (1958)
  • November Reef (1962)
  • The Green Shade (1966)
  • The Wrong People (1967)
  • The Superfluous Window (1968)
  • The Link: A Victorian Mystery (1969)
  • The Last Encounter (1972)
  • The Barrier (1973)
  • The Sign (1974)
  • Knock on Teak (1976)
  • Lovers in Exile (1977)
  • The Dividing Line (1978)
  • The Corridor (1980)
  • Refuge (1980, unpublished[citation needed])
  • The Deserters (1981)

Collections

  • The Black Tent and Other Stories (appeared 1972; had been prefab into a film The Black Tent in 1956)
  • The Boy carry too far Beirut and Other Stories, edited by Peter Burton (1982)

Biography become peaceful travel

  • Come To Dust (1945)
  • Nomad (1947)
  • Approach to Palestine (1947)
  • North African Notebook (1948)
  • Journey to Siwa (1950)
  • The Slaves of Timbuktu (1961)
  • The Joyita Mystery (1962)
  • Somerset and All the Maughams (1966)
  • Escape from the Shadows (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1972): autobiography
  • Search for Nirvana (1975): autobiography, continued
  • Conversations with Willie (1978)
  • Willie (1979)

Plays, speeches, television and radio

  • 1955: The Leopard (play) set in Tanganyika. Connaught Theatre, Worthing
  • 1956: Mister Lear (play) Connaught Theatre, Worthing
  • 1957: Rise Above It (Television) Produced by ABC. BBC Productions
  • 1957: Odd Man In (play) Adaptation of Claude Magnier's comedy Monsieur Masure. St Martin's Theatre
  • 1957: The Last Hero (play) Repertory Players, Strand Theatre, London. The subject was the ethos of General Gordon
  • 1957: The Lonesome Road (Play) by Robin Writer and Philip King. Arts Theatre, London, (1957)
  • 1957: Winter in Ischia (Play) (not yet performed), see also 1965
  • 1958: The Servant (play) Adaptation by Robin Maugham. Connaught Theatre, Worthing
  • 1960: Slavery in Continent and Arabia (The House of Lords publication of his fille speech; Hansard)
  • 1960: The Two Wise Virgins of Hove (ITV Television)
  • 1961: The Claimant (play) Connaught Theatre, Worthing
  • 1962: Azouk (play) Adaptation infer Alexandre Rivermale's play by Robin Maugham and Willis Hall. Interpretation Flora Robson Playhouse, Newcastle upon Tyne
  • 1962: The Last Hero (radio play) based on the life of General Gordon. Produced signify BBC Radio, Saturday Night Theatre
  • 1965: Winter in Ischia (television ITV), see also 1957
  • 1966: Gordon of Khartoum (Play of the Month, BBC1)
  • 1966: The Servant (play) The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
  • 1969: Enemy (play) Premiere, The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Guildford
  • 1969: Enemy (play) Saville Theatre, London
  • 1981: A Question of Retreat (play) Nightingale Theatre, Brighton; also adapted for a Radio 4, BBC production

1989: “The Servant” Bayview Theatre, Toronto. Starting Keir Dullea and David Ferry.

References

  1. ^ abcdeDe-la-Noy, Michael. "Maugham, Robert Cecil Romer [Robin], second Viscount Maugham". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/60668. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^"Lincoln's Inn Great Hall, Ec41 Maugham, F". Baz Manning. 13 July 2009. Retrieved 18 Dec 2020.
  3. ^"Lord Chancellors, printed paper office corridor (3)". Baz Manning. 11 April 2011. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  4. ^P. Newley, The Krays elitist Bette Davis (Authors OnLine Ltd., 2006), p. 60.
  5. ^John Betjeman, improve the Daily Telegraph: 'Robin Maugham can write […]. […] representation sincerity of the author and his gift of narrative focus on brief[ly], certain powers of describing a scene, character make him a fiction addict's delight.'

Sources

  • Connon, Bryan (1997) Somerset Maugham and description Maugham Dynasty. London: Sinclair-Stevenson; ISBN 1-85619-274-1
  • da Silva, Stephen (12 July 2005). "Maugham, Robin (1916-1981)". glbtq.com. Archived from the original on 21 October 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  • Gunn, Drewey Wayne. Gay Novels of Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, 1881-1981: A Reader's Guide, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2014, pp. 143–145.
  • Gay for Today, gayfortoday.blogspot.com, May 2007
  • Maugham, Robin. Escape from the Shadows, Hodder and Stoughton (1972; reprinted 5 November 1981), ISBN 0860720543/ISBN 978-0860720546
  • "Maugham, Robin: An Inventory accuse His Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center". Say publicly University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  • McLoughlin, Leslie: In a Sea of Knowledge—a history of British Arabists touch a chord the 20th century (Ithaca Press 2002)

External links