- Football
- College & University
- Neoclassical
- Railroads
- Alphabet
- Command & Conquer
- Language
- Walpole, Horace
- Gaiman, Neil
- Di Prima, Diane
- Witnesses
- Green Housecleaning
- Microwave
- College Entrance
- Pennsylvania
- Historical
- Westerns
- Purchasing & Buying
- Mormonism
- General
- Cross, Ronald Anthony
- Holidays & Festivals
- General
- Ghostville Elementary
- African American
- Cooking by Ingredient
- Werlin, Nancy
- Online Books
- Williams, Steven
- Haydn
- Some of our other sites:
- Books
- Clothing, Shoes and Accessories
- Baby Clothes and Accessories
- Cosmetics, Beauty Products and Fragrances
- Cellphones, Call Plans and Accessories
- Video Games
- DVDs
- Electronics, Gadgets and Computers
- Health and Personal Care
- Home and Garden
- Home DIY
- Jewelry
- Magazines and Newspapers
- Music Downloads
- Musical Instruments
- Office Equipment and Supplies
- Software and Games
- Sporting Goods
- Toys and Games
- Watches
- UK Books
- UK Video Games
- UK Home and Garden
- UK Electronics, Gadgets and Computers
- UK Baby Clothes and Accessories
- UK Software and Games
- UK Sporting Goods
- UK Toys and Games
Books : Literature & Fiction : Authors, A-Z : ( C ) : Coward, Noel
-
-
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 The first and definitive collection of letters (most of them previously unpublished) both from and to the incomparable Noël Coward, a unique and irresistible portrait of a society and age—from the Blitz to the Ritz and beyond.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.
-
-
All four members of the Bliss family have independently invited a guest for the weekend at their house near Maidenhead. The guests arrive only to find themselves alternately humiliated and embarrassed by their self-obsessed and self-dramatizing hosts. As Coward himself wrote, "Hay Fever is considered by many to be my best comedy." It was first produced in 1925 and hailed as a technical masterpiece. It remains a classic comedy of bad manners.
"It does not date ... it is in the highest mood of fantastic comedy, it is deliciously heartless and, therefore, deliciously alive and fresh."-The Times
"He is simply a phenomenon and one that is unlikely to occur ever again in theatre history."-Terence Rattigan
"Nol Coward is the Congreve of our time."-Arnold Bennett
-
Noël Coward is remembered as the most witty and elegant of theatrical personalities. He left behind over fifty plays, twenty-five films, hundreds of songs, and several books. Fortunately, he also left behind these diaries chronicling the last thirty years of his life, from 1941 to 1973. Moving through the theatrical, social, political, and historical worlds on both sides of the Atlantic, the impressive cast of characters includes Laurence Olivier, Frank Sinatra, Lauren Bacall, John and Jackie Kennedy, Harold Pinter, members of the Royal Family, and the Beatles, among a host of others. The Noël Coward Diaries is a social and theatrical chronicle as stylish and irresistible as the man himself.
-
-
-
Three stylish friends who share rivalrous affections attempt to uncoil their twisted love triangle in this sexy and scandalous gem. Written in 1932, the play was deemed extremely daring and even by today's standards is considered controversial in its frank and funny take on sex, love and commitment, proving to be one of Coward's greatest successes. Directed by Michael Hackett.Starring: Michelle Arthur, Claire Forlani, Thomas Hildreth, Hamish Linklater, Tim Monsion, Sarah Rafferty, and Douglas Weston
-
Noel Coward's glorious wit and dramatic precision combine to form his 1930s masterpiece about modern romance. Private Lives continues to be one of his most performed and read works.
-
-
Noel Coward's glorious wit and dramatic precision combine to form his 1930s masterpiece about modern romance. Private Lives continues to be one of his most performed and read works.
-
As Coward wrote: "I will ever be grateful for the almost psychic gift that enabled me to write Blithe Spirit in five days during one of the darkest years of the war."
Written in 1941, the play remained the longest-running comedy in the history of the British theatre for three decades thereafter. Dealing with relationships on both sides of the grave, it is an enduring classic.
"Nol Coward is the Congreve of our time."-Arnold Bennett
-
-
-
Two couples, Julia and Fred and Willy and Jane, are happily married and the best of friends until a postcard arrives with news of an imminent visit from Maurice, a handsome Frenchman carrying strong ties from the past.
-
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
-
-
-
-
Blackmail, drug abuse, and romantic intrigue rise to the surface in Coward's disturbing exploration of the Cocktail Party set in 1920s London. An unorthodox, frequently revived early piece from a giant of twentieth century British Theater.
Nol Coward was born in Middlesex, England in 1899 and came to fame as a playwright, lyricist, actor, cabaret performer, and one of the twentieth century's greatest wits. He died in Jamaica in 1973.