Masquerade Av Oliver Soden

<p><b>''This is the biography - truthful, sympathetic and thorough - that Coward deserves''</b><br><b>DAILY TELEGRAPH</b><br><br>The voice, the dressing-gown, the cigarette in its holder, remain unmistakable. There is rarely a week when one of <i>Private Lives</i>, <i>Hay Fever</i>, and <i>Blithe Spirit </i>is not in production somewhere in the world. Phrases from No¿Coward''s songs - "Mad About The Boy", "Mad Dogs and Englishman" - are forever lodged in the public consciousness. He was at one point the most highly paid author in the world. Yet some of his most striking and daring writing remains unfamiliar. As T.S. Eliot said, in 1954, "there are things you can learn from No¿Coward that you won''t learn from Shakespeare".<br><br>Coward wrote some fifty plays and nine musicals, as well as revues, screenplays, short stories, poetry, and a novel. He was both composer and lyricist for approximately 675 songs. Louis Mountbatten''s famous tribute argued that, while there were greater comedi