I decided to read Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge as a companion piece to a just released novel by new author, Heather Paul, Safety in Bear Country. At the centre of both books there is a reference to Maharishi Ramana, and so I linked the two novels as companion pieces. Maugham had reputedly visited the Hindu saint in his lifetime and transcribed his impressiin in the Edge. What a rare experience and treat to be given this literary master’s interpretation of the enlightened experience of the spiritual master that everybody talks about in New Age circles today. Razor’s Edge is in my mind a more accessible novel than Maugham’s Of Human Bondage which I am currently reading. His writing voice is the epitome of every great British actor's voice coming out of the 1950s. Think Herbert Marshall and you’ve nailed it. Anyway, Maugham is surprisingly modern in terms of his sensibility. If you haven’t read it, put it on your list. And put Safety in Bear Country on your list. It will blow you away.