Writers Abroad Magazine Issue 7 November 2017 | Page 32

WRITERS ABROAD MAGAZINE: THE THIRD SPACE
BOOK REVIEWS
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
reviewed by Laura Besley
Vintage 2001 (first published in Great Britain William
Heinemann in 1925)
When I stumbled across W. Somerset Maugham’s The
Painted Veil in a second-hand bookshop recently, I was
very interested in reading it. Partly because I’d already
read and enjoyed a collection of his short stories (Far
Eastern Tales), but also because I’d seen the film
starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts (dir. John
Curran, 2016) and was curious to know how it would
compare.
The story starts in colonial Hong Kong where Kitty
leads a mundane life as the wife of Walter Fane, a
bacteriologist. She starts an affair with Charles Townsend, but they are found
out and Walter’s punishment is to take Kitty to a remote village in mainland
China where a cholera epidemic rages.
W. Somerset Maugham easily transports readers back to the times of ‘tiffin’ and
‘amahs’. The language the characters use to talk to each other seems very dated
now, but that only adds to the atmosphere.
The film, having been given a Hollywood polish, differs somewhat from the book,
however both are well worth a visit.
Entry Island by Peter May
reviewed by Susan Borgersen
After reading the interview with Peter May in the last
issue of WA Magazine, I was intrigued. My ancestors
are from the Outer Hebrides, so I immediately loaded
the Lewis Trilogy to my Kindle and they were
unputdownable. Naturally, as we avid readers do, I
looked to see what else Peter had written. I read the
synopsis for his novel Entry Island and had no
hesitation in making the purchase. (You see what
happens when an author does an interview with this
magazine?)
I’d communicated with Peter about the impression
the trilogy made. After giving him a hint regarding my personal interest in The
Island and Highland Clearances era of Scottish history, he assured me that, with
Entry Island, I would connect.
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