Biography can be a delicate business and distinguished biographer Selina Hastings is more aware than most of the barriers that subjects use to protect themselves from the biographical gaze. An extreme example is famed British writer Somerset Maugham, who held a large bonfire of his personal papers and then embargoed the rest.

It is a reflection of Hastings’ reputation as the biographer of Evelyn Waugh, Rosamond Lehmann and Nancy Mitford that the Royal Literary Fund granted her access to Maugham’s papers. The result, The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham, certainly contradicts Maugham’s statement that ‘a life of myself is bound to be dull’. This session was chaired by Jane Stafford.