Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Published on: 1983-10-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 704 pages

From Library Journal
Coward's diaries from 1941 to 1969 offer an intimate look at the last 30 years of the life of the popular, sophisticated British playwright and author. While some of the entries are of the "Stayed out until 4 at Mrs. B___'s party" variety, more of them give insight into Coward's well-connected life. Coward knew or met hundreds of people working in the theater, the movies, and the government, and encounters with Vivien Leigh, Marilyn Monroe, King George IV, Winston Churchill and the Queen Mother, to name just a few, are included here. Excellent footnotes provided by editors Morley and Payn (My Life with Noel Coward) give a one-sentence description of such notables as "Larry" (Laurence Olivier) and "Dickie" (Lord Louis Mountbatten). Coward wrote these diaries with an eye toward publishing and therefore seemed to take great care to write, if not kindly about everyone, then perhaps not as harshly as he could have. Still, there are enough juicy tidbits to satisfy any biography-reading seeker of stars, starlets, and royalty. A thorough index enhances star browsing. For public libraries. J. Sara Paulk, Coastal Plain Reg. Lib., Tifton, GA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Noel Coward kept a detailed diary from the early Forties to 1969 - he elegantly laid aside his pen when news of his knighthood arrived - but readers in search of new revelations will be disappointed: the Coward biographer, Cole Lesley, had access to the Diaries for Remembered Laughter (1976); and, as far as his own love-life was concerned, Coward was utterly discreet, even in private. (There's virtually only one such reference here - to falling-in-love again at 58: "I can already see all the old hoops being prepared for me to go through. Ah me!") Still, if there's no news in these massively footnoted 704 pages, there is wit, hilarity, aphoristic genius, theater-lore, some gossip . . . and magnificent affirmation of Sir Noel's essential decency, compassion, and gentlemanliness - qualities not often associated with the show-biz world. He was conservative, of course, in both art and politics: Waiting for Godot is "pretentious gibberish," Death of a Salesman "boring and embarrassing"; the assassination of Gandhi is "a bloody good thing but far too late." He was not good with children. (On a friend's noisy grandson: "I should have liked to cleave his winsome little blond head in two with a meat axe.") There are devastating backstage portraits of the leading ladies involved in each Coward show - Bea Lillie, Edith Evans, Claudette Colbert, Lili Palmer ("the mixture of female film star and Kraut is not entirely felicitous"), and sometimes-beloved Mary Martin. There are diatribes against critics, theater parties, Germans, American taste, television, Mary Renault ("Oh dear, I do, do wish well-intentioned ladies would not write books about homosexuality"), campiness, religion, and Graham Greene: "He has a twisted, tortured mind but, like most of God's creatures, aches to be loved." There is a good deal of self-deluding explanation for the lack of great success (except as a performer) during these decades. But the combination of common-sense and ever-good-humored eloquence is the dominant tone here - whether following the year-after-year turmoil in the Vivien Leigh/Laurence Olivier marriage or writing, with great patriotic sincerity, about England's decline. And this is, with very few lapses into the usual journal trivia, a Grand Tour of a Diary: an uncommon display of effortless stylishness, a valuable (if joyfully biased) record of transatlantic theater in the postwar period, and an irresistible surprise package overall - cutting, kindly, loyal, vengeful, but always professional . . . and very rarely ugly or sad. (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author
Graham Payn, a lifelong friend of Coward who appeared in many of his most successful plays, now lives at Chalet Coward in Switzerland, from where he runs the Coward estate. Sheridan Morley is the drama critic of the Spectator and the International Herald Tribune and author of the first Coward biography, A Talent to Amuse.

Customer Reviews

Every Year At Christmas....Noel Coward!!!
Virtually every person I know has a favorite Christmas tradition, an activity that they perform every year that is theirs and theirs alone, and that sums up the Christmas spirit of peace, good will, and love. For my own tradition, every year at this time, I reread this wonderful book. Why, you may ask? Well, I'll do my best to explain. I received this book as a Christmas present from a dear friend when it was first published in 1982. It quickly became my favorite book, and I find that it both inspires and delights me with every new reread. I was an actor and theatre person for many years, just long enough to discover one truth about Sir Noel Coward: This stylish and elegant man, actor, singer, playwright par excellence, and all around bon vivant, simply knew more about life in general and the theatre in particular than any other person I've ever encountered. Whether dealing with stubborn, recalcitrant actresses who refuse to wear their hair properly (i.e. Mary Martin), or facing the loss of a livelong confidant (his personal secretary, Lorn Loraine), Coward's show of sheer courage, strength, and determination in facing the everyday stresses and strains of life, and with considerable humor and great goodwill, seems to me the essence of the Christmas (and, by extension, the human) spirit. Organized in chapters by the years the diary entries were made (1945 to 1969, with a prologue that covers the World War II years as one section), the book is a very relaxed and enjoyable read (usually, a chapter a night works well), and covers the time period of the years following his initial successes (by the time the entries begin, Coward had already written his best known works: Private Lives, Desigh for Living, Hay Fever, and Blithe Spirit) through the 1950's and the years of abuse at the hands of narrow-minded critics (who considered him too "shallow" and "commercial"), and on through the 1960's and his renaissance period (when many of those same critics found his plays fashionable once again). Through it all, the successes, tragedies and failures, the many, many encounters with the rich and famous (Coward knew virtually every famous person of his day and counted many as lifelong friends), and most of all, the wit and wisdom of one of the most fascinating persons of our time will keep the devoted reader enthralled for all 700 plus pages. I could say much more about The Noel Coward Diaries, but a hundred reviews could not contain it all, so I will close by saying please make this book a present for yourself (and/or someone you love). Trust me, it will be one of the wittiest, most delightful, and truly Merriest Christmases you have ever spent!!!