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English topics

                 Topic N6 ("My Favourite Writer")

     I'm fond of reading. My favourite writer is William Somerset

Maugham and i would like to tell  about  his  biography.

William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and spent his childhood

in Paris in the family  of a British  diplomat. Having  lost  his

parents at an early age, he went to  live  in  England  with  his

uncle, who was a clergyman. He was educated at King's  school  in

Canterbury studied painting in Paris, went to Heidelbury University

in Germany and spent  six years at St.Thomas  Hospital in England

studying to be a doctor. He was an unsatisfactory medical student

for his heart wasn't in  medicin. He wanted, he had always wanted

to be a writer and in the evening after his tea, he wrote and read.

     In 1897 he  wrote a novel called "Liza of Lambeth", sent  it

to a publisher and  it  was  accepted.  It  was  something  of  a

success. So William  Somerset  Maugham  decided  to  abandon  his

medical profession and he did it with relif. The next  ten  years

were very hard on him. He learned the  terrible  difficulties  of

making a living by writing. But he survived. He became  a  famous

writer. He never regretted the five years he  had  spent  at  the

hospital. They taught him pretty well all  he  knew  about  human

nature.

     The novel "The moon and sixpence" (1919)  is  based  on  the

life of the artist Paul Gauguin was an immediate success. Maugham

went to Tahiti and lived in Gauguin's hut while writing the book.

His fame as a short story writer began with "The Trembling  of  a

leaf". Since then he wrote many collections of books, essays  and

criticism. Many  of  his  books  and  stories  came  out  of  his

extensive travels in the East. His  autobiographical  books  "The

summing up" and "A writer's Notebook"  are  remarkable  for  both

style and sincerity. His books have been reprinted many times.

     In 1927 William Somerset Maugham settled  in  the  South  of

France and lived there until his death in 1965.

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

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