Noel Coward: A Biography of No L Coward

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Noel Coward was a remarkably prolific writer with dozens of plays, several films, hundreds of songs plus volumes of autobiographies, stories and verse to his credit, produced in his rapid-fire style from the 1920s through the 1960s. His plays defined postwar Britain and are among the wittiest works ever written. Yet despite the spotlight he attracted--not to mention several biographies of the man--the full story of Coward, complete with his less-admirable sides, has remained untold. That is until Philip Hoare's striking biography, which offers insight into Coward's work and private life. Noel Coward's plays need not be forgotten; this biography should help keep them alive.

Customer Reviews:

The Definitive Noel Coward.......2007-01-05

Philip Hoare has compiled the most complete of all the Coward biographies and I think I have read them all save Cole Lesley's. Hoare points out dramatically what a complicated personality Coward was and how his sexual orientation impacted his talent and his fame.
I worked with Coward late in his life (1960/61) and knew only his celebrity. His autobiographies and most of the other bios dealt only on that level. It took Hoare and the passage of time to reveal the more complicated and private side of his amazing life.
I will always cherish my brief encounter with the Master.

Probably ought to be the standard.......2004-01-15

Nearly eight years after its publication, and almost five since the (relatively) highly observed centenary of Noël Coward's birth, I'm amazed to see that I'm apparently the first person to review this biography on Amazon.com. When I first read it several years ago, I was struck by Hoare's thoroughness, his dispassion, and his wide-ranging research. While this book may not be flawless, it's certainly good enough, I believe, to be the current standard biography of the man.

Despite Coward's reputation as the quintessence of high-class sophistication and airy panache, Hoare shows how the man was shaped by his distinctly unglamorous childhood. His days as a hard-working child actor are thoroughly explored, as are his relationships with colleagues, lovers, competitors, and friends. While not prurient, Hoare clearly loves a good story, and doesn't mind dealing dish (as they say) on his subject when he has one to tell.

Amazon.com

Graham Payn first met Noel Coward at age 13, when he auditioned for the playwright by tap dancing while singing "Nearer My God to Thee." He became Coward's longtime companion. So perhaps Payn knew better than anyone the personal side of Noel Coward, whose public personae had the trappings of an enchanted life but whose private life has been more difficult to capture. "His manner created distance between himself and those who would approach him." Payn says. This biography helps give a portrait of the playwright and tells of his vast accomplishments. The book should help keep Coward's work alive.

Book Description

This is the definitive memoir of the private Noel Coward by the only man with the compassionate insight and first-hand experience to write it. Graham Payn, star of many of Coward's shows, shared the Master's professional and private life for thirty years. When Coward kept the rest of the world at bay, Payn remained at his side as confidant and friend. No one else was as privy to Coward's doubts and dreams.

Customer Reviews:

Thoughtful, Loving Memoir.......2005-09-08

Don't read this book unless you want to fall more in love with Noel Coward than you already must be to read the book in the first place. Mr. Payn has assembled a quilt of memoir, unpublished theatre writings by Coward, photographs, a beautiful reminiscence by one of Coward's leading ladies, and a recorded conversation between Coward and Judy Garland. The whole of the book gives a tender, honest, delightful insight into Coward, the people he loved, the perils and pleasures of his work, and the places he most enjoyed. Lovers and students of theatre will find great rewards in these pages.

It is a generous book; Mr. Payn shares with the reader all of the real stuff of knowing Noel Coward so well and for so long. He does not share intimate details of their relationship, but does share his deep love of the man himself. In short, Coward himself was a man who treasured good taste and true sentiment -- and it is fitting that his life-partner should offer this book in his honor.

What A Life, Indeed!!!.......2004-06-17

Over the course of forty years, South-African-born actor Graham Payn shared the life, love, companionship, and generous wit of that "playboy of the West End world," Noel Coward. This book is a loving and often frank tribute to this great man, who made so many people laugh for so many years, and who, in life as well as on stage, was the very epitome of the word "style". Payn begins with his first audition for Noel and the play Words and Music in the thirties, takes us through the war years, to the decidedly unforgiving (to Noel) fifties, when the critics turned against him en masse, to the triumphant sixties and "Dad's Renaissance" to an adoring public, through Noel's death and the demise of Noel's personal assistant (and fellow biographer) Cole Lesley, up to the present (1993) and the unveiling of a special tribute stone for Coward in Westminster Abbey by no less a person than the Queen Mother. If this book ended after Graham's 250-page-or-so lovely memoir, it would still be worth five stars, but there is more. Much more. In the roughly hundred pages that follow, Payn provides us with the complete Coward writings on theatre, many of which first appeared in the Sunday Times (and which, for my money, prove conclusively that Noel Coward knew more about theatre than any other person who lived in the Twentieth Century). There are also interviews with actresses Judy Garland and Judith Campbell, brief but penetrating portraits on some of the many important figures in Coward's life (including Rex Harrison, the Lunts, and Sir Winston Churchill), and much more. My one caveat that goes with my otherwise-unqualified recommendation is this: please read The Noel Coward Diaries first, so that you get a clear understanding not only of how Noel saw himself, but how he viewed many of the key figures in this book. (Author Payn plays, not surprisingly, a significant part in the diaries.) With these two books by your bedside, you'll have the best and most delicious kind of reading entertainment for many nights to come, and you'll say of Graham Payn's life with Noel Coward: "What a life, indeed!!!"

the wittiest bio of the master.......2000-01-25

coward's longtime companion graham payn probably comes as close to coward as anyone ever will. he manages to artfully weave the details of his own life with a plethora of new anecdotes -- and old -- about sir noel. the added bonus is the appendices containing previously unpublished coward works, including a tenth play [!] written for "tonight at 8:30".

well worth your time...

Coward's lover,friend and literary executor's retrospective.......1999-06-13

I read and reviewed this book for my on-line theater magazine -- The new off-Broadway musical about Coward's friendship with Gertrude Lawrence draws much material from this book as well so I found myself referring back to it for my write-up of that show -- both show and book are particularly timely as the Coward centennial celebrations get into full swing.

A perceptive memoir of the man behind the public face.......1999-03-29

"An engrossing portrait of this world famous and immensely gifted man,chronicled so frankly by his closest friend...A most vivid account of his career after the Second World war" - JOHN GIELGUD"I greatly doubt if anything written about the Master will ever be as fascinating,as perceptive,as amusing or as touching as Graham Payn's loving portrait." - RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH"It's simply terrific !...So funny and so sensitive." - ELAINE STRITCH"Stories I never heard before bringing Noel vividly to life." - LAUREN BACALL"I greatly doubt if anything written about the Master will ever be as fascinating,as perceptive,as amusing or as touching as Graham Payn's loving portrait." - RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH"It's simply terrific !...So funny and so semsitive" - ELAINE STRITCH"Stories I never heard before bring Noel vividly to life." - LAUREN BACALL

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Every Year At Christmas....Noel Coward!!!

The Phoenix: Noel Coward Diaries
Noel Coward
Manufacturer: Phoenix Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1842120662

Book Description

Witty and sophisticated, a brilliant dramatist and a charismatic actor, the multitalented Noël Coward was one of the most colorful personalities who ever strode across the stage. These diaries chronicle the last 30 years of his life, from his wartime concert tours through his private and professional depression in the 1950s to his triumphant reemergence and knighthood in the 1960s and '70s. "Compulsive reading...what Coward has to say about other people is light-hearted, witty, often shrewd, totally without malice...his final entertainment for everyone's pleasure are these diaries." --Sunday Times. "A constant delight. A goldmine of gossip with a cast of a thousand stars."
--Guardian.

Customer Reviews:

Every Year At Christmas....Noel Coward!!!.......2003-12-07

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!!!

Future Indefinite: With the Unfinished Past Unconditional (Methuen Autobiography)

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The Latter Pieces of Coward's Style

Future Indefinite: With the Unfinished Past Unconditional (Methuen Autobiography)
Noel Coward
Manufacturer: Methuen Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0413773930

Book Description

The concluding volume of Coward's autobiography includes his travels in South America, Hollywood encounters with an array of contemporary stars, including Cary Grant and Franklin Roosevelt, and his theatrical successes. Future Indefinite sees Coward transformed from a "brazen, odious little prodigy" into one of the most exuberant characters of the British stage.

Noel Coward was born in Middlesex in 1899. His plays include Hay Fever, Private Lives, Blithe Spirit and Design for Living. He was knighted in 1970 and died three years later in Jamaica.

Customer Reviews:

The Latter Pieces of Coward's Style.......2006-11-07

This is a hugely subjective autobiography, penned by one of the most legendary playwright/lyricist/ composer/ entertainer combinations of the last century. For scholars and devotees of Coward's life experiences and his wittly elegant use of vocabulary and phraseology: it is highly valuable. Also of note are Coward's individualistic, personal turn of phrase and the inclusion of persnal habits and mannerisms of daily living: writing, sitting down to tea, fashion, dressing,social graces and vast friendships. To find more of the legendary playwright's private life and what exactly inspired him to write, other objective biographies need to be consulted.

A Talent to Amuse: A Biography of Noel Coward

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A Talent to Amuse: A Biography of Noel Coward
Sheridan Morley
Manufacturer: Little Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Quite surprising!
Parallel lives, winning presentation
Classy, Insightful -- A First-Rate Dual Bio!

Noel and Cole - The Sophisticates
Stephen Citron , Cole Porter , and Noel Coward
Manufacturer: Hal Leonard
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0634093029

Book Description

First time in Paperback! Noel Coward and Cole Porter's fascinating lives celebrated. Fresh on the heels of the popular motion picture based on Cole Porter's life called De-Lovely, Noel and Cole presents a fresh and often surprising portrait of these two geniuses. The author provides insight into both men's private lives - including a frank discussion of their homosexuality - while illuminating their musical achievements. Born an ocean apart - one in Indiana, the other in England - Cole Porter and Noel Coward have come to represent the ultimate in sophistication and urbanity. Noel and Cole will be an essential reference as well as a fascinating dual biography of two men who brought style and dazzle to the art of popular entertainment. * Based on access to previously unpublished manuscripts, lyrics, scores, and letters, plus dozens of interviews * Includes a chronology and a fifty-page section devoted to the analysis of select works

Customer Reviews:

Quite surprising!.......2007-01-10

Another gift to my dad for Xmas and he was entertained with the stories and the lyrics. He didn't know about Noel...so we both learned something new. A very well-written and entertaining book.

Parallel lives, winning presentation.......2004-01-15

Cole Porter and Noël Coward were, in many ways, the colossi of music and the theater during their era. And despite their different backgrounds, they had more than a few things in common. A parallel biography of the two men, and parallel analysis of their work, just makes sense. Stephen Citron has pulled it off admirably.

The book is arranged chronologically, and chapters alternate between the two men. Their lives frequently intersect and intertwine, but the still-significant differences between the two don't get lost. Citron is not only a skilled biographer. He also has an insightful eye for drama and music. His analysis of selected Porter and Coward songs, occupying the last sixty or so pages of the book, should be a handy reference and guide to the work of both men.

Classy, Insightful -- A First-Rate Dual Bio!.......1998-10-29

This book not only takes a fresh and thoroughly readable look at two extraordinary lives -- it also includes some excellent assessments of their songs. I've read most everything published on these two men and found this book worthwhile and highly enjoyable. If only all composer bios were so intelligently handled!

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A Visit with Noel Coward is Theatrical History

Present Indicative
Noel Coward
Manufacturer: Methuen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0413774139

Book Description

First published in 1937, Present Indicative is the first part of the autobiography of one of the most celebrated characters in British theatrical history and hints at the success that would come to Coward as actor, playwright, novelist and performer. Each line is punctuated with his trademark effervescent wit, making this book a comic tour de force in its own right, as well as a "must read" for anyone with an interest in the world of theater.

Customer Reviews:

A Visit with Noel Coward is Theatrical History.......2006-10-02

I have read this book several times over the last 30 years. And while I enjoy it from time to time, I must confess that I am surprised that it is being re-released. Is the audience for theatrical history that large?

Coward's early autobiography will appeal to lovers of the theatre. There is naturally a lot of theatrical background and name-dropping, but many of those names, while important names, may be unfamiliar with today's reader [Sir Charles Hawtrey, Madge Titheradge, etc.]. Others of course, still resound today: Gertrude Lawrence, Laurence Olivier, Gielgud.

Coward's wit drips from every page, often self-deprecating, but always discreet [no mention of his homosexuality, etc.], amusing and in good taste. Coward focuses on his professional life, and not his personal life. It doesn't have the insight that Moss Hart's "Act One" has. Since the memoir was written in 1937, naturally a great portion deals with his early life, and the insight to impoverished genteel life in the early part of the century is fascinating.

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Sir Noel Coward - His Words And Music
Noel Coward
Manufacturer: Hal Leonard Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0881881678

Book Description

A collection of 32 classics including: I'll Follow My Secret Heart * Mad About the Boy * Mad Dogs and Englishmen * Someday I'll Find You * This Is a Changing World * many more. Many bandw photos.

Remembered Laughter: The Life of Noel Coward. Orig Pub in Great Britain Under Title: Life of Noel Coward

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Names Dropped With A Thud!
THE best read on Coward

Remembered Laughter: The Life of Noel Coward. Orig Pub in Great Britain Under Title: Life of Noel Coward
Cole Lesley
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 039449816X

Customer Reviews:

Names Dropped With A Thud!.......2006-11-09

Noel Coward, prolific playwright and songsmith, had one of the Twentieth Century's better documented lives-- hardly a day passed without his picture's popping up in the paper. He wrote some outstanding, long-lived plays, such as "Blithe Spirit," and "Private Lives:" he also wrote such well-known songs as "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," and "Heigh-ho."He published his own two-volume autobiography. And, as if we needed more, along came a biography by Cole Lesley, Coward's longtime secretary-companion, as they used to say, and his heir.

The question is, how much more do we get from this fat book? If Lesley wrote with all the advantages of having been extremely close to his subject in life, he's also hobbled by all the disadvantages of such a situation. You could say he carries English reticence to an extreme. He also quotes Coward as having joked that any biography of his ought to be called "Name Dropping," in recognition of the troops of Names that marched through his life. And oh my, troops of Names do march through this book. Furthermore, unfortunately for us Americans, the Gertrude Lawrences, Kate Hepburns,Irene Mayer Selznicks and Marlene Dietrichs are few in proportion to all those now-obscure, at least to us, English society figures and theatrical stars of the Teens, Twenties and Thirties. Finally, it gets a little tiring trying to remember who mouthed which witticism to who, and where. Maybe wit should not be served cold; maybe we don't have as much time for it as we once did. Or maybe it's Lesley's annoying cutesy amateur writing style.

More irritating yet is Lesley's poor judgement as to what we might want to know. We get pages and pages of houseparty chat, but are told in single, bald sentences of Coward's periodic breakdowns. We are quoted scores of clever transatlantic telegrams to an American, Jack, clearly one of Coward's great loves. Next thing we know, Coward's attending Jack's wedding, to an actual Princess Natasha, at the Connecticut home of Jack's parents. No idea of Coward's feelings on the matter, though I suppose we can guess.

But we are told that he sailed across the seas on September 1 for this event; that he quoted Dorothy Parker's line about the wedding's representing "the twenty-first fine careless rapture," for bride and groom, and that Coward and the elegant Baron Nicolas de Gunzberg marked the occasion by writing naughty verses, in French, celebrating the erotic properties of Vaseline, to be sung to the tune of "La Petite Tonkinoise."

Well, if you're a Noel Coward fan, and admire his wit, there's lots of it to be had here, and we won't soon be getting any more vintage Noel Coward. If you haven't the patience for this kind of thing, this isn't going to be for you.

THE best read on Coward.......2002-12-13

from the title (marvelous!) on, this older (1976) book remains the best read on Noel Coward around. It's all here, consumately engaging, lovingly presented, with dignity, style, charm and all the other positive things that the incomparable Mr. Coward possessed. It's the sort of book one reads again and again and continues to capture the essence of Coward.

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A JUMPING-OFF PLACE

Noel Coward in His Own Words
Noel Coward
Manufacturer: A&C Black
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

A selection of stylish and witty musings from the works and life of a master wordsmith. This affectionate and surprising portrait of his life in his own words includes not only his best-loved witticisms and lyrics, but also excerpts from private papers and many hidden gems from unpublished material. This book reflects the writer's capacity for considerable depth and compassion, as well as his amazing talent to amuse.

Barry Day has edited a number of books on and about Noel Coward.

Customer Reviews:

A JUMPING-OFF PLACE.......2001-04-17

I am all in favor of more Americans who don't happen to have lives in the Theatre, familiarizing themselves with the works of Noel Coward. And if this charming, funny, little sampler (chock full of rhymes and quotes and line drawings) will help, then I'm all for it.

But, most of Coward's quotes in Day's book are taken out of context from plays and films. And what usually makes most of them laugh-out-loud funny or just smilingly clever is that very context: what and how and why Coward's characters say what they say.

Also alot of his references are very, very British and relatively antique like this short speech from "Private Lives," one of his best and most frequently revived plays: (Amanda): "And India, the burning Ghars, or Ghats, or whatever they are, and the Taj Mahal. How was the Taj Mahal?...And it didn't look like a biscuit box, did it? I've always felt that it might." That passage (quoted in its entirety from this volume) is simply not really funny, unless the reader knows the play and the character of 'Amanda' or is watching the play and hears the actress playing 'Amanda' speak the lines.

But then there are always his wonderful, romantic lyrics, usually tinged with sadness when they are not downright playful: "I'll see you again,/Whenever spring breaks through again;/Time may lie heavy between,/But what has been/Is past forgetting."

And wonderful, pithy lines that have to do as much with today (think: American politics) as they do with the period in which they were written: "It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit."

If this book is a jumping-off place for people to really dig in and investigate Coward more thoroughly, then I recommend it. Better yet, read his plays like the above mentioned "Private Lives" and "Hay Fever" and "Blithe Spirit" to begin with, and then some of his short stories and his vastly under-rated Diaries.

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