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Noel Coward
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Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 1899 – 26 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".
Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter and Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works (including the operetta Bitter Sweet and comic revues), screenplays, poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel Pomp and Circumstance, and a three-volume autobiography. Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works.
At the outbreak of the Second World War Coward volunteered for war work, running the British propaganda office in Paris. He also worked with the Secret Service, seeking to use his influence to persuade the American public and government to help Britain. Coward won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 for his naval film drama, In Which We Serve, and was knighted in 1969. In the 1950s he achieved fresh success as a cabaret performer, performing his own songs, such as "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "London Pride" and "I Went to a Marvellous Party".
Coward's plays and songs achieved new popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and style continue to influence popular culture. He did not publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, but it was discussed candidly after his death by biographers including Graham Payn, his long-time partner, and in Coward's diaries and letters, published posthumously. The former Albery Theatre (originally the New Theatre) in London was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in his honour in 2006.
Book List in Order: 15 titles
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I'll Leave It to You
- Jan-1920
- / General Fiction
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This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them....
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Fallen Angels
- Jan-1925
- / General Fiction
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Genre: Comedy Characters: 3 males, 3 females Scenery: Interior
Best friends now happily married to others, Julia and Jane both once counted the dashing Frenchman Maurice as their lover. Guess who's back in town and requesting the ple... -
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Pomp and Circumstance
- Jan-1960
- / General Fiction
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First published in 1960, Pomp and Circumstance, Coward's only novel, was greeted with wide critical acclaim. 'A South Sea Bubble of a book it is, with a Royal Visit expected on the Island of Samolo, and the narrator, a mother of three, dealing wit...
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The Collected Stories
- Nov-1983
- / General Fiction
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This collection of twenty stories features all of the stories Noel Coward published between 1939 and 1967, including "What Mad Pursuit," "Aunt Tittie," and "Mrs. Radcliffe"...
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The Reader
- Sep-2011
- / General Fiction
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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....
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Collected Short Stories
- Mar-2012
- / General Fiction
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This one-volume edition contains the complete collection of Coward's twenty short stories, spanning fifty years of his working life. Written with Coward's inimitable poise and wit, the stories variously describe back-stage intrigues, Hollywood cha...
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The Vortex
- Aug-2022
- / General Fiction
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The Vortex is a play in three acts by the English writer and actor Noël Coward. The play depicts the sexual vanity of a rich, ageing beauty, her troubled relationship with her adult son, and drug abuse in British society circles after the First ...