The stories published here were largely written in the three decades following the First World War. Although Maugham had written short stories early in his career, preoccupation with his other writing led to a long interval before he next took up the form, on a voyage in the South Seas in 1919, originally as a relief from other work.

Each of these stories can stand on its own. Maugham himself wrote that such a compactness of technique, character and incident may seem disconcerting in a world where at least one loose end is normally left behind; but the compactness is part of the method used by such short story writers as Maugham. As he put it in his own distinctive way, such a writer ‘seeks to prove nothing. He paints a picture and sets it before you. You can take it or leave it.’ Most take it.

He was born Temujin, the son of a khan, raised in a clan of hunters migrating across the rugged steppe. Temujin’s young life was shaped by a series of brutal acts: the betrayal of his father by a neighboring tribe and the abandonment of his entire family, cruelly left to die on the harsh plain. But Temujin endured—and from that moment on, he was driven by a singular fury: to survive in the face of death, to kill before being killed, and to conquer enemies who could come without warning from beyond the horizon.

Can Abby love Nathan now? His body no longer works. He needs to be cared for as an infant. Yet, as Abby learns to face Nathan's physical difficulties, she begins to see a side of Nathan that hadn't existed before. A new creation has been born in a broken body. But just when she feels the love rekindle, Nathan begins pushing her away, afraid. Is it too late for both of them?

Drawn from the Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, with the emphasis on the expressions used or coined before 1914.

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About the Author
Keith Harding was born in London and educated at St Albans School, and at King's College Cambridge. He completed a Ph.D. in History at the University of Sussex in 1983, before beginning his career in EFL. He worked in language schools in Brighton and International House, London, before joining St Giles International where he has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer (CELTA), Director of Studies, and, since 1994, as Principal.