Tan Twan Eng

A former winner of the Walter Scott Prize, Tan Twan Eng returns to Melrose with his exquisite new novel The House of Doors. In 1921 at Cassowary House in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Robert and Lesley Hamlyn receive a visit from an old friend: Willie Somerset Maugham, one of the greatest writers of his day. But beleaguered by an unhappy marriage, ill-health and business interests gone badly awry, Willie is struggling to write. As he prepares to leave, Lesley confides secrets of her own, including her relationship with a charismatic Chinese revolutionary and her connection to the case of an Englishwoman charged with murder. This drama of love and betrayal is based on real events. The session is dedicated to the memory of the Duchess of Buccleuch.