W. Somerset Maugham ranks among the most prolific, versatile, and successful British authors. Among his more than eighty books, five are usually classified as travel literature. The composition of these works spanned more than four decades, indicating his long-time interest in travel and travel literature.

Born at the British Embassy in Paris on 25 January 1874, William Somerset Maugham was the fourth son of Robert Ormond Maugham, an English solicitor, and his socialite wife, Edith Mary Snell Maugham. Maugham spent his early childhood in France. At age ten, following the death of his mother in 1872 and his father in 1874, he was sent to live with a married but childless elderly uncle, the Reverend Henry Maugham, vicar of Whitstable, near Canterbury. During his lonely days in the vicarage, Maugham found solace in reading his uncle's books. Owing to painful shyness, he found little relief for his solitude after entering the King's...