Throughout his life, Noel Coward the master songwriter, 'derived a considerable amount of private pleasure from writing verse.' Much of it is gathered in this first ever CD collection. From moving war-time encounters to satirical barbs at familiar Coward targets and personal reminiscences, this delightful collection is a perfect blend of vintage Noel Coward sure to be enjoyed by faithful fans and new listeners alike. The collection includes two short stories, Cheap Excursion and The Kindness of Mrs. Radcliffe, and various poems. And from the Caedmon Treasury Sir Noel Coward himself and Margaret Leighton perform Coward's adaptation of his Brief Encounter, scenes from Blithe Spirit and Present Laughter, the interlude from Bernard Shaw's The Apple Cart, concluding with the duo reading more from Coward's Collected Verse. Performed by Simon Jones

The Noel Coward CD Audio Collection Selections

Literature & Fiction

Coward, Noël.

Literary

Caedmon

The wit of Noël Coward;

Reference

Frewin

The Noel Coward Diaries

The Noel Coward diaries

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Weidenfeld and Nicolson

The extravagant life and career of the great playwright, actor, composer, writer, and director is chronicled, from his acting debut at the age of twelve to the production of Cavalcade

Present Indicative (Da Capo Paperback)

Da Capo Press

Noël Coward said, “The only thing that really saddens me over my demise is that I shall not be here to read the nonsense that will be written about me and my works and my motives . . . There will be lists of apocryphal jokes I never made and gleeful misquotations of words I never said. What a pity I shan’t be here to enjoy them!” Here is a book that Noël Coward did write; jokes he did make . . . No gleeful misquotations here . . . only the best of Coward’s best. Barry Day, editor of the acclaimed Letters of Noël Coward, who knows more about Coward and his writing than almost anyone, has brought together in one volume a Coward reader any Coward reader—or Coward appreciator—will delight in. It’s hard to believe that, to date, there has never been a Noël Coward reader; this volume marks the very first. Here are scenes from Coward’s plays, The Vortex, Blithe Spirit, Private Lives, and Design for Living . . .from his film screenplays, Brief Encounter and the previously unpublished script for In Which We Serve . . . from his only published novel, Pomp and Circumstance, as well as four of his best short stories. Included, as well, is his verse, in which Coward reveals the “secret heart” behind the surface wit of his more formal work . . . And here, too, are the lyrics of his sublimely Coward songs: “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” . . . “The Stately Homes of England” . . . “I’ll See You Again” . . . “Someday I’ll Find You” . . . “Mad About the Boy” . . . “Sail Away” . . . “Mrs. Worthington” . . . and much more that embodies what Coward hoped would be his epitaph: “He was much loved, because he made people laugh and cry.” Eddie Cantor said Noël Coward was “the British George M. Cohan . . . The most brilliant contribution England ever made to American show business.” The Noël Coward Reader is a must-have book for those who luxuriated in the collection of his letters; for those who adore his work and those who are just discovering the delights of his writing. Kenneth Tynan said of Coward, “Theatrically speaking, it was Coward who took sophistication out of the refrigerator and put it on the hob . . . Even the youngest of us will know, in fifty years’ time, precisely what is meant by ‘a very Noël Coward sort of person.’ ” Those who read The Noël Coward Reader will agree: this is a very Noël Coward sort of book.

The Noël Coward Reader

Dramas & Plays

KNOPF

Lavishly illustrated and annotated, this first and definitive collection of letters to and from Coward provides a divine portrait of an age, from the Blitz to the Ritz and beyond. The incomparable Noël Coward loved to correspond with friends, enemies, the famous and infamous, the talented and the powerful, including Virginia Woolf, Winston Churchill, Greta Garbo, Laurence Olivier, Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Lawrence of Arabia, Somerset Maugham, and many more. Granted unlimited access to the Coward archive, Barry Day presents many never-published letters and has unearthed new, startling evidence of Coward's wartime work as a spy. Along with 191 rare photographs, these letters bring to life the people and events that shaped the twentieth century—and a remarkable man who made his own indelible mark at the heart of it.

The Letters of Noel Coward

Humor & Entertainment

Vintage

The Noël Coward Reader offers a wonderfully wide-ranging selection—the first of its kind—of the best of the Master’s oeuvre, entertainingly annotated and abundantly illustrated, and including material that has never before been published. Here are scenes from Coward’s famous plays, from Private Lives to Blithe Spirit, and his screenplays, from Brief Encounter to In Which We Serve. Here are four of his best short stories, scenes from his only novel, and a generous selection of his verse, alongside the lyrics of many of his most sublime songs, including “Mad Dogs and Englishmen,” “The Stately Homes of England,” and “Mad About the Boy.” The Noël Coward Reader is a must-have book both for those who adore his work and for those who are just discovering the many-faceted delights of his comic genius.

For over 50 years Noel Coward was the British theatre's most renowned dramatist, director and star, and one of the most colourful characters ever to stride across it's stage. His popularity continues with the frequent and long-running production of his plays. These diaries chronicle the last 30 years of his life, from his wartime concert tours, through his private depression in the 1950s, to his triumphant re-emergence in the 1960s and knighthood in 1970. With a glittering cast of characters, from the worlds of theatre, royalty, politics and high society the diaries sparkle with Noel Coward's zest and versatility.

Noel Coward Diaries

Payn, Graham

MORLEY, Sheridan

Macmillan

A publishing event! The first and definitive collection of letters (most of them previously unpublished) both from and to the incomparable Noël Coward, a unique and irresistible portrait of a society and age—from the Blitz to the Ritz and beyond. The range, charm, and vitality of his talents—he was a playwright, actor, composer, librettist, lyricist, director, painter, writer, cabaret singer, wit—brought him into close encounters, and often close friendship, with the great and the gifted. He knew everybody who was anybody in the theater and in the movies, in literature and in politics, on both sides of the Atlantic. Among those at his “marvelous party”: George Bernard Shaw . . . T. E. Lawrence . . . Virginia Woolf . . . the Churchills . . . Daphne Du Maurier . . . Greta Garbo (she wrote asking him to marry her; he wrote back saying he almost accepted) . . . Ian Fleming . . . W. Somerset Maugham . . . Marlene Dietrich (he advised her, “To hell with God damned ‘L’Amour.’ It always causes far more trouble than it is worth”) . . . Tallulah Bankhead . . . Edith Sitwell . . . FDR . . . Gertrude Lawrence (in a cable about Private Lives: “Have written delightful new comedy stop good part for you stop wonderful one for me stop”), and many more. There are letters about his productions of Bitter Sweet . . . Cavalcade . . . In Which We Serve . . . Brief Encounter . . . Private Lives, etc. . . . about his activities during World War II (he was a spy for the British government along with co-conspirator Cary Grant) . . . about the move to make him a knight that was endorsed in a personal letter from King George VI and blocked by Winston Churchill. Here are letters to and from his beloved mother, Violet . . . his longtime set and costume designer, Gladys Calthrop . . . his traveling companion from the 1930s on, Lord Amherst . . . and his business manager and onetime lover, Jack Wilson, in which he reveals his “secret heart.” Profoundly savvy, witty, loving, bitchy, and often surprisingly moving, The Letters of Noël Coward gives us “Destiny’s Tot” at his crackling best. An irresistible portrait of a time, of the man himself, and of the world he lived in and enchanted.

Three Plays

Random House~trade

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