Shabby little shocker
Somerset Maugham enjoyed enormous success as a dramatist and then as a novelist and essayist. He then mangled the final act of his own life. He had a French villa and plenty of antiques and dosh to dispose of, and his will clearly and legally disposed of it, mostly in two big chunks: one to his daughter, Liza, Lady Glendevon, his only child; the other went to his male lover, Alan Searle. No muss, no fuss, no nasty headlines.
But Maugham attempted some legal razzle dazzle over his estate a few years earlier and had to endure a torrent of adverse publicity. The celebrated writer starred in a melodrama of his own making, and almost no one applauded.
The son of a wealthy British solicitor, Maugham was born in Paris and had an idyllic childhood until his mother died when he was eight and his father when he was ten. Maugham and his three brothers shared £5,000 left by their father.
He also had to return to England, where he was raised by an uncle in Kent. Before becoming a writer, Maugham practiced medicine and incorporated his experiences as a doctor in his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897). Encouraged, he abandoned medicine to devote himself entirely to writing.
Success came quickly and abundantly: in 1918 four of his plays were performed simultaneously in London's West End. He then abandoned drama for fiction and wrote his masterpieces: Of Human Bondage (1915), Moon and Sixpence (1919), Painted Veil (1925) Cakes and Ale (1930) and Razor's Edge (1945). Many became films; three versions were made of his story "Rain" (the character Sadie Thompson may ring a bell). His editorial suggestions may also have affected the final version of The Servant, a novel best known for the Joseph Losey film. The author was his nephew, Robin Maugham.
Courting disaster
The young Maugham fell in love with an actress (his unrequited love for Sue Jones is depicted in Cakes and Ale) and he married Syrie Wellcome after she became pregnant with his child - and divorced her husband, pharmaceuticals magnate Henry Wellcome (1853-1936). Both men loathed her. In his will Wellcome left Syrie nothing but gave £500 to Dr Barnardo's. Syrie, who died in 1955, was the daughter of Thomas John Barnardo, the orphanage founder.
Fundamentally homosexual, Maugham was promiscuous but also had two long-term lovers. His first partner was Gerald Haxton (they were lovers while Maugham was married to Syrie). They were together until Haxton died 30 years later in 1944. Haxton's place was taken by Alan Searle until Maugham's own death two decades later.
Shooting from the hip - into your own foot
Domiciled in France, Maugham’s shrewdly minimised his eventual death duties. His home, Villa Mauresque, was owned by a company of which his daughter was a majority shareholder. Nine valuable paintings of his were also legally owned by Liza.
He auctioned his collection, which included works by Picasso and Renoir, in 1962 and included the items she owned on the understanding that some cash would go her way. She received her share only after successfully taking him to court.
Maugham, or rather Searle, the chief instigator, had more litigious ideas. Maugham would disown and disinherit his daughter and legally adopt his 57-year-old male lover, who could then inherit everything. Proceedings were held in two countries.
The French court said non to both the disinheritance and the adoption. Expensive proceedings in England were settled out of court, with Liza keeping her share of the French villa and other assets, but losing royalties and other considerable assets to her father, who then willed them to Searle.
Maugham spilled all of these beans in Looking Back (1962), a spiteful and unchivalrous work that appalled many of his British friends.
The final act
Maugham gave modest cash gifts to his cook and his chauffeur, and he bequeathed a portrait of himself to the City of Nice. He also provided for his nephew Robin, who had earlier extorted a handsome bit of cash from his uncle by threatening to write his biography. At the time Robin claimed poverty, asserting that he had already gone through the £9,000 left to him by his father.
Searle's inheritance was substantial but only for his lifetime. After he died in 1985, the assets reverted to the Royal Literary Fund in London to help writers in financial need.
During his lifetime, Maugham bailed out his his alma mater, King's College, Canterbury, when it was going through hard times. After being cremated in France, his ashes were scattered outside the Maugham Library at King's.
