Somerset Maugham's Asian tales of alcohol and adultery won him fame – and enraged his expat friends
The doorman in the white short-sleeved shirt and shorts, white knee-length socks and pith helmet smiles, presses his palm to his heart and pushes the heavy wooden doors open for me. The lobby of the Eastern & Oriental Hotel is an icy, blessed sanctuary from the heat beating down on the streets outside, and I feel myself cooling down immediately. I am in Penang, off the north-west coast of Malaysia, to launch my new novel, The House of Doors, at a refurbished 1930s cinema in the heart of George T
Source: yahoo.com
