Includes over 200 newly found lyrics. This is the first time that the complete lyrics of Noel Coward have been published together. Includes sheet music, programmes and photos from original productions.This magnificent collection of over 500 lyrics, richly illustrated with over 200 photographs, will lead the way in celebrating the centenary of Coward's birth in 1999. Some 220 new lyrics and additional verses for existing songs have been discovered by Barry Day and are published here for the first time, along with Day's commentaries about the genesis and context for all the material. This volume made news headlines when it was revealed that a whole cache of new lyrics were discovered in a Swiss bank vault. No one knew that Noel Coward had written so much undiscovered material.The great popular lyricists of the twentieth century can be counted on the fingers of one hand - Lorenz Hart, Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Oscar Hammersmith ...and Noel Coward.

Author Biography

Noel Coward made his name as a playwright with The Vortex (1924), in which he also appeared. His numerous other successful plays included Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, and Blithe Spirit. During the war he wrote screenplays such as Brief Encounter (1944) and This Happy Breed (1942). His volumes of verse, autobiography and letters have all been published to acclaim by Methuen Drama. Coward was knighted in 1970 and died three years later in Jamaica.