Somerset Maugham Scandalises 1920s Singapore

Sharing the literary landscape with contemporaries like D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf, W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) travelled to Singapore in 1921. Though he was already well-known as a writer then, it was his stay in Singapore that inspired some of his most celebrated short stories. Crime fiction writer Tracey Morton tells us how Singapore inspired his works, why they remain relevant, and whether the Menendez brothers deserve their sentence.Tracey A. Morton is a Singapore-based Irish/Australian writer and a Cambridge graduate. She is co-host of the podcast, The Asian Bookshelf, and author of the upcoming novel, The Coffee Shop Masquerade. In 2020, she was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize for her short work, “Faded Ink”, and the Virginia Prize for Fiction for The Queen, The Soldier and The Girl. Her novel, Someone Is Coming, based on plantation murders in Malaya in the 1900s, was published by Monsoon Books in 2022 and has been optioned for television.What Tracey Talked About02:29 – Who Somerset Maugham was04:11 – Why Maugham came to Singapore?06:46 – Which Maugham’s stories had the most impact07:38 – Maugham’s writing style10:03 – How Maugham’s work would be received today10:45 – The influence Asia had on Maugham and his stories13:26 – How Tracey became interested in Maugham’s life and works16:28 – What inspired her to write stories about Maugham18:07 – Tracey’s journey into crime fiction writing and historical research22:18 – How the idea for Someone Is Coming came about26:23 – Tracey’s new book The Coffee Shop Masquerade28:45 – What the Singapore literary scene lacks35:07 – Crime writing is…Transcript and ResourcesRead the transcript: https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/all-sections/podcast-somerset-maugham-scandalises-1920s-singapore-tracey-morton/Check out the BiblioAsia article "W. Somerset Maugham: Secrets from the Outstations": https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/all-sections/vol-20-issue-4-jan-mar-2025-william-somerset-maugham-secrets/Subscribe to BiblioAsia for more stories about Singapore.This episode of BiblioAsia Podcast was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Doppler Soundlab. The background music "Di Tanjong Katong" was composed by Ahmad Patek and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Tracey for coming on the show.The BiblioAsia Podcast by the National Library Singapore tells stories about Singapore history.