Born Mary Elizabeth Maugham (full name was Mary Elizabeth
Maugham Paravicini Hope, Baroness Glendevon) was the only child of William
Somerset Maugham, perhaps the century's grumpiest writer, and Syrie, his wife
turned society decorator. Her parents married in 1917, after her mother's
divorce from the British pharmaceuticals magnate Henry Wellcome. Her mother
was a daughter of orphanage founder Thomas John
Barnardo. She was known as Liza, after her father's first successful
novel, Liza of
Lambeth.
Liza grew up in a unique environment: Noel Coward (who
called her Liza Boo) composing songs in her mother's house, Cecil Beaton
photographing her, and Beverly Nichols gossiping about her. "Liza is a
perfect darling," effused Beaton of the 13-year-old. "I adore her.
She is unique, wise, sophisticated and yet very childish." David Herbert
declared unequivocally that Syrie's "adoration of Liza was touching and
her whole life revolved around her".
Liza also was the plaintiff in one of the most celebrated
family-law trials of the early 1960s, when she fought her celebrated father's
unsuccessful attempt to prove that she was not his child. She could not
understand what had turned her father against her. "Dearest Daddy, you are
making me quite miserable by refusing to see me . . . How can you suddenly turn
on me when I have done absolutely nothing?" The situation may have been
explained by a bitter comment made by Maugham to Alan Searle: "The trouble
with those two [the John Hopes] is that they're too damned happy"; and by
the fact that Maugham was already suffering the effects of Alzheimer's.
In his memoir Looking Back (1962) Somerset Maugham denied
paternity of Liza. Around the same time, he attempted to have her disinherited
in order to adopt his male secretary, suggesting that she was actually the child
of Syrie Maugham and Henry Wellcome. The subsequent 21-month court case, fought
in British and French courts, determined that Maugham was her biological
father, and the author was legally barred from his adoption plans.
Elizabeth Mary Maugham: born Rome 1 September 1915; married
1936 Vincent Paravicini (one son, one daughter; marriage dissolved), 1948 Lord
John Hope (created 1964 Baron Glendevon, died 1996; two sons); died Hopetoun,
Lothian 27 December 1998.
