The House of Doors

​It’s 1947, and ageing widow, Lesley Hamlyn, lives in the sparse and arid Karoo region of South Africa. A book written by Somerset Maughan arrives in the post, immediately triggering memories of the life she had earlier in the century, and she pines for her luscious tropical home in Penang in the Straits Settlements. She was forced to move to a drier climate due to her late husband Robert’s poor lung health.

Lesley’s first-person narrative is interspersed with that in the third person featuring the author, Willie Somerset Maughan, and relates how he comes to stay with Lesley and Robert after a peripatetic journey through the Far East with his secretary and lover, Gerald. As he searches for new subjects to write about, Willie is faced with personal problems on several fronts.

This extraordinary and absorbing novel is partly based in historical fact and has considerable depth and insight. It tackles the full range of human emotions - love, lies, loss, betrayal and even a notorious and enigmatic real murder case.

Like much of Maughan’s own writing, the pitfalls of marriage feature strongly. Lesley’s shock when she discovers Robert’s secret leads her to throw caution to the winds and embark on her own clandestine involvement with associates of the Chinese revolutionary, Sun Wen, also known as Sun Yat Sen.

Atmospheric, with exquisitely crafted writing and empathy, this has my vote as one of the best novels I’ve read in the past few years.

(The book also speaks to me personally on many levels. I’m fortunate in having the advantage of remembering similar characters to Lesley, Robert, et al, as my father and members of his family and friends lived through this era of the British Empire. I’ve been to Penang and also Beaufort West, the town near Lesley’s home in South Africa. I'm familiar with the work of Somerset Maughan and, ironically, I also have a pendant that belonged to my late mother that bears a silvery image of Sun Yat Sen.)

Five stars.

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amazon.co.uk

Dymocks Australia

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