As the young people play tennis and speculate on what their parents may provide for them in the way of flats, cars and allowances, Charles Battle is having a bit of trouble at the Stock Exchange. What happens and how he reacts will have a life-changing effect on both friends and family.

A delightful and apt comedy by one of Britain’s most popular twentieth century writers, who once outsold all his brilliant contemporaries, including Joseph Conrad and Robert Louis Stevenson. Before the age of 30, he had four plays on in the West End at the same time.

As well as his numerous plays such as The Constant Wife, The Circle, The Sacred Flame and The Letter, Somerset Maugham’s novels have frequently been adapted for film, including Of Human Bondage (1934) starring Leslie Howard and Bette Davis, The Painted Veil (1934) featuring Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall, and in 2006 with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton. More recently Up at the Villa with Kristin Scott Thomas and Sean Penn, and Being Julia with Annette Benning.