The Noel Coward Diaries

For over half a century Noel Coward was British Theatre's most renowned dramatist, director and star, and one of the most colourful characters who ever strode across its stage. Published to coincide with the centenary of Coward's birth, these diaries chronicle the last 30 years of his life, from his war-time concert tours, through his private and professional depression in the 1950s to his triumphant re-emergence in the 1960s and knighthood in 1970. Moving through the theatrical, social, political and historical world on both sides of the Atlantic, the impressive cast of characters ranges from Churchill and Mountbatten through Olivier and Vivien Leigh to Marilyn Monroe, Harold Pinter and the Beatles. This is a marvellously funny, touching and revealing account of the three decades in the life of the greatest theatrical entertainer of the century.