Cakes and Ale, or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard (1930) is a novel by the British author W. Somerset Maugham. Maugham exposes the misguided social snobbery levelled at the character Rosie Driffield, whose frankness, honesty, and sexual freedom make her a target of conservative opprobrium. Her character is treated favourably by the book's narrator, Ashenden, who understands that she was a muse to the many artists who surrounded her, and who himself enjoyed her sexual favours.

Maugham drew his title from the remark of Sir Toby Belch to Malvolio in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" Cakes and ale are also the emblems of the good life in Joseph Jacobs' 1912 rendition of Aesop's fable of "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse": "Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear."

In his introduction to a Modern Library edition, published in 1950, Maugham wrote, "I am willing enough to agree with common opinion that Of Human Bondage is my best work ... But the book I like best is Cakes and Ale ... because in its pages lives for me again the woman with the lovely smile who was the model for Rosie Driffield."

The story is a satire of London literary society during the Interwar period. The narrator, a well-to-do author named William Ashenden, is unexpectedly contacted by Alroy Kear, a moderately talented London writer who has been asked to write a biography of the famous, recently deceased novelist Edward Driffield by Amy, his second wife. Driffield, once scorned for his realist representation of late-Victorian working-class characters, had in his later years come to be lionised by scholars of English letters. Amy, a nurse to the ailing Edward after his first wife left him, is known for her propriety, and her interest in augmenting and cementing her husband's literary reputation. Her only identity is that of caretaker of her husband in life and of his reputation in death. It is well-known, however, that Driffield wrote his best novels while he was married to his first wife and muse, Rosie.

Knowing that Ashenden had an acquaintanceship with the Driffields as a young man, Kear presses him for inside information about Edward's past, including Rosie, who has been oddly erased from the official narrative of Edward's genius.

Ashenden recounts his experience as a teenager in Blackstable, a small town in Kent. He is befriended by Driffield, then an obscure writer, who is married to a former barmaid, Rosie. Both are well beneath Ashenden's social status, but he finds them interesting and visits them often. The relationship ends when the Driffields skip town, leaving a host of creditors unpaid.

Years later, as a medical student in London, Ashenden runs into Rosie on the street and renews the friendship. Driffield is beginning to make a name for himself, championed by Mrs. Barton Trafford, a socialite who promotes and manages promising talent. Ashenden and Rosie become lovers, but he suspects that she is having affairs with other male friends as well. This second period ends when Rosie runs off to America with "Lord George" Kemp, a former lover from the Blackstable years.

Driffield marries his nurse, Amy, who rearranges his life and moulds him into a famous and cherished author. Kear becomes close to them and after Driffield's death, is asked to write his biography. Amy and Kear both denigrate Rosie and see the only good thing about her is abandoning Driffield so his genius could flourish. They believe Rosie is dead, but Ashenden knows that she is alive and widowed in Yonkers, New York, where he once visited her. Ashenden decides that he will not share anything he knows about Rosie with Kear and Amy.