FIREFLY: NOEL COWARD IN JAMAICA. Chris Salewicz & Adrian Boot (1st Edn H/B) 1999

FIREFLY: NOEL COWARD IN JAMAICA. Chris Salewicz and Adrian Boot

Noel Coward fell in love with Jamaica on sight. The island's beauty, warmth and relaxed way of life made it the perfect refuge from the grey austerity of post-war Europe, and from 1948 onwards he spent as much time there as possible.

High on a hill above the Caribbea he found a limestone building roofless and abandoned, called Look Out, alledgedly once owned by the pirate Henry Morgan. Although the house was uninhabitable the view was sensational. Coward bought the ruin and the surrounding ten acres for a mere £150, renamed it Firefly and set about making it his private bolthole from the cares of the world.

Noel Coward loved Firefly above all other places. It was here that he would write, paint and relax with his closest friends and companions, including Charlie Chaplin, the Queen Mother, Audrey Hepburn, Gladys Cooper Alec Guiness, Michael Redgrave, Joan Sutherland, Anton Dolin,. Peter Sellers, Peter O'Toole, Laurence Harvey and Maggie Smith. And it was here that he was buried.

This beautiful  book, published with the approval of the Coward Estate, tells the story of the Firefly years; 'it fills in the one missing part of the Coward jigsaw.' as Sheridan Morley puts it in his Preface. It is illustrated throughout with photographs, paintings and drawings from Coward's private albums, many previously unpublished, and with specially taken photographs of Firefly and the island today. It is a book all Noel Coward fans will treasure.

A FIRST EDITION hardback published in 1999 by Victor Gollancz (£17.99 r.r.p.)