W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham was born on January 25, 1874, in the British Embassy in Paris, France. His mother was the socialite Edith Mary Snell, and his father was Robert Orman Maugham, a lawyer. However, Maugham endured a traumatic childhood - he was orphaned at the age of ten when his mother died from tuberculosis and his father died from cancer. He was raised by his childless aunt and uncle, and bullied intensely by the other children at his school.
Maugham studied medicine at St. Thomas'...