Whitstable England is a beautiful seaside town in the region of Kent. Its charming streets are lined with beautiful, and often historical, buildings and homes and the town exudes a pleasant atmosphere filled with its unique charm. Tourists who visit the town and stay in one of the Whitstable hotels often leaves wishing they could return on a permanent basis and make the town with great coastal views their home. This was the case for actor Peter Cushing who moved to the town after his retirement. Writer W. Sumerset Maugham also lived there as a child. No doubt the beauty of the town and the area contributed to the inspiration behind his writing.

Maugham was an extremely popular playwright, short story writer and novelist who was probably the most well liked English writer of his time. He was born in Paris, France in 1874 to a father who was lawyer working with the French Embassy. A the time of the young Maughham’s birth, it was officially recognized that any baby born in France could be considered obligated to military service. His father wished to avoid this so he arranged for his son to be born in the embassy, which was technically British soil in order to avoid this. Maugham’s mother was consumptive and died when he was eight years old. This left him tremendously scarred and was a loss he seemed to never move beyond. Two years later, his father died of cancer.

Maugham was sent to live with his uncle in England. His uncle was Henry MacDonald Maugham who was the vicar of Whitstable. This was an unfortunate transition for young Sumeset as the uncle was emotionally cold and by some accounts was even cruel. These early traumas may have played a role in Maugham’s tuning to literature to express himself. Some of his major and most well known works include Of Human Bondage, The Razor’s Edge and The Magician. The Magician is believed to be based on the famous British occultist, Aleister Crowely .