(bell dings) (typewriter clacks) (calm music) - [Twan] I am Tan Twan Eng.

And this is "The House of Doors."

(calm music) At its heart, it's about the process of storytelling and creation.

It's about how stories get passed from one person to another.

How they change from that process, how the stories are transformed by each person when they pass the stories on to the next person.

And across time as well.

(calm music) - [Jeremy] You made what I think to be a really bold choice of writing a really beautiful work of fiction about a real life novelist.

So was that risky?

- It was, initially, I felt it would be quite easy because all I had to do, I thought, was to replicate the person on the page.

But when I was writing the book, I found that it was extremely restrictive, because if I wanted my plot to go in a certain direction, I could not, because Somerset Maugham, for example, his characteristics would not allow me to go in that direction.

An example would be, I wanted Willie Maugham, as he's known to his friends, to attend more parties, to hear more stories.

But in reality, he is quite shy because of his lifelong stammer.

He did not like being in a social occasion or situation.

So I just could not write too many party scenes for him.

(calm music) - [Jeremy] You didn't just choose a, you know, an unknown author.

This is Somerset Maugham.

- [Twan] No.

Yes.

- You could have gotten away with fictionalizing his life, but you decided to stay true to his story.

Why did you decide that?

- Well, his story was already so exciting and interesting and colorful.

There really was no need for me to fictionalize him.

And in fact, I had to cut out a lot of the more exciting and colorful sequences of his life, much to my regret, mainly because they were not relevant to the story I was writing.

So I had to leave them on the cutting room floor.

(calm music) - [Jeremy] Did you know much about his life and how he really suffered in his marriage because of his homosexuality?

- [Twan] No, when I just knew the vague outlines, when I had the idea to start writing about him, I had to do extensive research on him.

I read, I think, almost every biography that was written about him.

I read his novels, I read his short stories.

I read books by people who loved him and hated him.

That's more interesting when you read about people who hated him, just to get a really authentic picture of the man.

- Can you talk about his struggle?

- [Twan] He struggled all his life.

He was born in Paris.

But his parents died when he was seven or eight years old.

And he had to go back to England to live with his uncle and aunt, and they were elderly by then.

They were childless, so they had no idea how to bring up a young boy.

Somerset Maugham spoke English with a French accent.

So when he was sent to boarding school, he was very much bullied.

And that's where his lifelong stammer started.

He never got over that.

And of course, also, he was gay.

I think he was 20 years old when the Oscar Wilde trials happened.

So that terrified him.

And made him very careful with his real self, all his life.

- And he entered into a marriage of ultimate convenience.

- Oh, as I put it in the book, "a marriage of inconvenience."

- Inconvenience, which is more appropriate.

But he really suffered because of that.

- [Twan] He did, but, you know, and the sad thing is because in his suffering, he also caused suffering to other people, to his wife.

It was an unfair treatment of her.

You know, in those days, he had no other choice.

- [Jeremy] Yeah, this was- - [Twan] Men like him had - [Twan] no other choice.

- [Jeremy] That's right.

In order for him to be successful, he had to keep this secret.

(calm music) This is also a book about murder.

So why did you decide to intertwine that into the story about two people, I believe, who are really just trying to love the people that they're in love with?

- Well, it's interesting contrast.

Somerset Maugham, he loved his secretary.

And because he was a man, he could, he had avenues to travel with his secretary.

Whereas, with Leslie, being a woman a hundred years ago, her options were very much limited.

And so she had to find a way to find some sort of fulfillment for her life.

And her friend, in my novel, I made Ethel Proudlock her best friend.

Ethel crossed the lines set down by society, and she had to pay the price.

And Ethel's fate was a warning to Leslie to be extremely careful and private in her own life.

(calm music) - Your novels are elegant, they're bold, they're beautifully written.

But do you ever struggle to write them?

- All the time.

All the time.

Somebody once told me that, "Oh, the first book is the hardest.

And the second and the third will get easier."

No, it gets harder and harder.

First of all, every book is different and every book presents its own challenges.

And also, you know, we change.

You and I change over the years, so our tastes, our expectations start to evolve as well.

So if you read my first two novels and compare to this "The House of Doors," you'll see an evolution in style as well.

- And we hope we get better.

- I hope so.

Yes.

- That's the goal.

What do you tell aspiring writers?

What's your advice to them?

- Keep rewriting.

You always have to rewrite.

There have been some aspiring writers who declare to me with great pride that, "Oh, I never rewrite."

That's shocking, I think.

Yes.

- Yeah.

It's astonishing to think that there's a world where that happens.

- Yes, yes.

- Because I think that's where we delve into the characters a little bit more.

We get to know them a little bit better when we rewrite.

And it becomes better with every pass.

I wonder if this was a difficult book for you to write because of the constraints you couldn't completely make up everything 'cause you are writing about a real person.

Was those constraints difficult to break out of?

- It was extremely difficult to.

I found writing about real life characters quite constraining, as I explained earlier, because, you know, you have to fit the story to the characteristics of those people.

And also you have to be authentic and accurate to do justice to them and to respect them.

But at the same time, you have to animate them.

You have to bring them to life.

In contrast, I found writing the fictional characters, Leslie and her husband, more liberating, easier to write, more fun to write as well.

Yeah.

(calm music) - [Jeremy] When you first talked to your agent, or perhaps your editor about this book, how did you explain why you wanted to write this book?

- I didn't tell.

I didn't talk.

My agent knows that I never talk about my books until I deliver the books to them.

I only gave them vague outlines.

Of course, I was naughty in that when my agent asked what I was working on, and I said, "Oh, it's a tale about murder and lust."

And of course she was immediately happy with that.

'Cause those things sell.

(laughs) - Yeah, right.

That's right.

(laughs) And then when you turned in the book, do you remember their reaction?

- They first, well, first of all, to be fair to them, it was an extremely difficult book to write.

I really struggled with it for years.

When I turned in the first draft, they were not happy with the first draft.

It was quite frightening because you know, when you submit your first draft to your agent, you want them to come back to you the next morning and say, "I spent the whole night reading the draft and I loved it."

No, she, my agent, I think, took about a week or two before she came back to me.

And then the first thing she said was, "We have to do a video call."

And my heart sank.

- You knew at that point you had some work.

But that is the importance of - I knew.

- rewriting, you know what I mean?

- Yeah.

I love rewriting, so- - And that's where the best work is done anyway.

- Yes.

I love, I could do it endlessly for years, rewriting.

- Right.

And it could take that long.

But I do think it's important for your readers to understand you are celebrated.

You have, this book has done extremely well.

But the first stab at it isn't always the best stab.

- No, it's always the worst stab.

- It is.

It's always, even the one we turn in is the worst stab.

- Yeah.

And that book has been re-written.

I've lost count, to be honest.

- I'm glad it went through as many rewrites it did.

- So am I- - Because it's - a beautiful thing.

- Yes, thank you.

- What would you like your readers to take away from this book?

- An understanding that storytelling is what unites us.

Somebody told me once that when we share meals with strangers, we become closer.

But I think when we share stories, that's when we really understand each other.

Now, sharing meals warms our stomachs, but sharing stories, warms our hearts.

- Twan, thank you for doing this.

It's a gorgeous book and I'm so glad to see its success.

- Thank you, Jeremy.

- And thank you for watching "A Word On Words."

I'm Jeremy Finley.

Remember, keep reading.

(bell dings) - [Twan] It's been the real labor of love, but there's always, the other side of which is frustration is annoyance, irritation, despair, doubt.

That's part of love as well.