This is the book to go if you can’t remember all the verses of “Mad Dogs and Englishmen,” or “I’ve Been to a Marvelous Party.” On the other hand if you’d like to recall Private Lives, you’ll find exerpts on page 179, along with a photograph of the original cast: Gertrude Lawrence, Laurence Olivier, Adrienne Allen, and of course, Noel Coward himself. There are also the lyrics of that haunting song “Someday I’ll Find You.”
The story of Coward’s life unfolds from his first public performance, which he writes, he remembers,”With repulsive clarity appearing in a concert in aid of charity,” to his death in Jamaica in 1973.
And inbetween you’ll find a wealth of short stories and songs–sarcastic, sentimental, and patriotic–and scenes from films, reviews and other plays crowd the covers of this book.
(Published, 2009)
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