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Portrait image of W. Somerset Maugham Photo: 1929 Bassano/Camera Press / TT

Sample of authors

Maugham, W. Somerset

William Somerset Maugham was a British author born in Paris. His father was a lawyer at the British Embassy there. When Maugham was eight years old, his mother died of tuberculosis, two years later his father died of cancer and the boy was sent to live with his uncle, the Vicar of Whitstable in Kent. Maugham suffered from a serious stammer, he was shy and avoided speaking in public; unlike his...

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Literary figures

Mumtaz Hakim

Gender: Female

Her family come from Bangladesh, but she has grown up in London. She became a widow at a young age when her husband – a brutal petty gangster – was murdered in a gang fight, and since then she has lived alone with her teenage step-daughter Shazia. Even though Mumtaz Hakim is a Muslim, and thus wears a veil, she is employed as an assistant by private detective Lee Arnold. The two together are the p...

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