Robin Maugham

The Film Ink series presents the novels that inspired the work of some of the most celebrated directors of our time. While each novel is first and foremost a classic in its own right, these books offer the dedicated cinephile a richer understanding of the most illustrious films of American and European cinema. Set in London just after the Second World War, Robin Maugham's slim, haunting novella is a confessional tale told in a simple, urgent voice by one Richard Merton. He tells the story of Tony, a close friend from the war, who—breaking links with old friends and habits—steadily comes under the influence of his sinister new butler, Barrett. Concerned for his friend, Richard slowly uncovers a strange affair in which both class and sexual barriers have disintegrated into a dark flux. Filmed in 1963 by Joseph Losey, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter, and starring Dirk Bogarde and James Fox, The Servant was one of the key British films of the 1960s.

The Servant

The Wrong People

Journey to Siwa

The Slaves of Timbuktu

William Lawrence

Wrong People (Valancourt 20th Century Classics)

A Novel

The Deserters

Set against the seedy backdrop of 1960s Tangier, The Wrong People (1967) is the story of Arnold Turner, a repressed English schoolmaster on holiday in Morocco, where he meets Ewing Baird, a wealthy American expat with a dark secret. Ewing lavishly entertains him and even provides him with a young lover, but as Arnold becomes more and more involved with Ewing he realizes only too late that he has been lured into a dangerous trap - and his only chance of escape is by helping Ewing to carry out a sinister plan. Drawing in part on the author's real-life efforts to expose the African sex trafficking trade, Robin Maugham's first explicitly gay-themed novel was both a critical and a commercial success, being reprinted several times - including in the important Gay Modern Classics series - and was optioned for a film version by Sal Mineo (Rebel Without a Cause). This edition includes a new foreword by Maugham's longtime partner William Lawrence. 'I can only think of a handful of novelists who can play the reader like a hooked fish with comparable ingenuity and suppleness.' - Francis King, Sunday Telegraph 'A very well-told story, every move nicely calculated and undeniably shuddery.' - Daily Telegraph 'A gripping thriller. Storytelling at its best.' - Sunday Express

The Wrong People (Valancourt 20th Century Classics)

Recollections of W. Somerset Maugham

Conversations with Willie

Robin Maugham

Books

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