The eighth volume in the Coward Collection includesI'll
Leave It To YouandThe Young Idea, the first of Coward's plays ever to
be produced. These were, as he said, enthusiastically acclaimed by the
critics and ran five weeks and eight weeks respectively. In both of
them I appeared with the utmost determination.
This Was a Man, a
slightly later play, was written in 1926, after the successes which
made his name. It was originally banned by the Lord Chamberlain for
facetious adultery .
No??l 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.I'll Leave it to You; The Young Idea; This Was a Man