The Vagrant Moodis a brilliantly varied and colourful collection of essays. From Kant to Raymond Chandler; from the legend of Zurbaran to the art of the detective story; from Burke to Augustus Hare, Somerset Maugham brings his inimitable mastery of the incisive character sketch to the genre of literary criticism

William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel,Liza of Lambeth,published in 1897, won him over to literature.Of Human Bondage,the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 ofThe Moon and Sixpencehis reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographicalThe Summing UpandA Writer's Notebook.In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965

Another collection of sparkling essays by one of Britain's most neglected masters of the form>