Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham tells the story of author William Ashenden's series of contracts over decades with a greatly renowned novelist, and the need of his would-be biographer for details that William alone can provide. The novel deals with the craft of writing and the foibles of those who do it.
The narrator of Cakes and Ale, William Ashenden, a writer not currently in vogue, is approached by a colleague with whom he has had little recent contact. William rightly suspects an ulterior motive in Alroy Kear, a man who has done well on moderate talent. Roy has been asked by the widow of a truly famous novelist, one year departed, to write a biography of her husband. Amy has collected a great deal of information that fits her view of how Edward (Ted).....
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