Additional information
by Noël Coward (Author)
The Seventh volume in the Coward Collection. On Quadrille: "Miss Fontanne plays the madcap Marchioness with the
crackle and sheen of a five-pound note. Her eyes mock marvelously, her
voice cuts like a knife into a wedding cake, and the scene in Act
Three, on the eve of her elopement with Mr. Lung, is as delicious as
crushed ice." Evening Standard, 1952.
"The idea of Peace in Our Time",
Coward wrote "was conceived in Paris shortly after the Liberation. . .
I began to suspect that the physical effect of four years intermittent
bombing is far less damaging to the intrinsic character of a nation
than the spiritual effect of four years enemy occupation."
The
volume also contains four pieces from the Tonight at 8.30 sequence: We
Were Dancing "provides a marvelously compact illustration of the way
the English public school spirit prevails even in moments of strenuous
passion." "Shadow Play is a musical fantasy. . . which gave Gertie and
me a chance to sing as romantically as we could, dance in the moonlight
and, we hoped, convince the audience that we were very fascinating
indeed"; and "Family Album - a sly satire on Victorian hypocrisy,
adorned with an unobtrusive but agreeable musical score. It was
stylised both in its decor and its performance, was a joy to play and
provided the whole talented company with good parts." Star Chamber,
closely based on Coward's experiences trying to co-ordinate his Actors'
Orphanage charity committee, is published here for the first time.
Author Biography
Noël Coward was born in 1899 in Teddington, Middlesex. He made his name as a playwright with The Vortex (1924), in which he also appeared. His numerous other successful plays included Fallen Angels (1925), Hay Fever (1925), Private Lives (1933), Design for Living (1933) and Blithe Spirit (1941). During the war he wrote screenplays such as Brief Encounter (1944) and In Which We Serve (1942). In the fifties he began a new career as a cabaret entertainer. He published volumes of verse and a novel (Pomp and Circumstance, 1960), two volumes of autobiography and four volumes of short stories: To Step Aside (1939), Star Quality (1951), Pretty Polly Barlow (1964) and Bon Voyage (1967). He was knighted in 1970 and died three years later in Jamaica.
