Noel Coward’s inspiring homes and hedonistic holidays
‘I'm an enormously talented man, and there's no use pretending that I'm not.’ So said Britsh playwright Noel Coward. Born in 1899, was indeed one of the most talented entertainers of the 20th century. Dubbed ‘The Master’, he acted, produced, directed and sang, but it was writing that made his fortune. In the 1920s, his witty, sharply observed comedies Private Lives and Hay Fever turned him into the world’s best paid writer - which he celebrated with a suave image complete with silk dressing gown and elegant cigarette holder. His wealth enabled him to buy homes and travel in the most luxurious style. His sharp wit won him a multitude of famous friends from Greta Garbo to Edward VIII to share his experiences with - though he also sought personal inspiration and peace for writing from his environment.
During WWII, Winston Churchill worked in British propaganda and was successful enough for Hitler to put him on his ‘kill list’. Part of his brief was to persuade the Americans to join the war. His intense patriotism and love of Britain can be seen in the movies This Happy Breed and In Which We Serve - although he later became a tax exile, living in Switzerland and Jamaica. In later years he reinvented himself as a cabaret star, taking Las Vegas x with Mad Dogs and Englishmen. He had a relationship with places where he holidayed and bought - they inspired his work and he sprinkled glamour and enhanced their status and interest.
Sculpture of Noel Coward in Jamaica shown above by Angela Conner.
Romney Marsh, Kent
Despite his famously plummy voice, Noel Coward came from an ordinary home in Teddington, a town on the Thames west of London. His father was musical, and worked as a piano salesman; Violet, his mother, came from an impoverished branch of a successful family - her grandfather had been xxx in Madeira where he had greeted Napoleon on his journey into exile. She gave Noel a sense of status to be regained and encouraged his talent as they moved to apartments in Battersea and Clapham. He began work as an actor aged 11, playing a fairy, a mushroom, and also wrote plays, in the early 1920s, became a West End sensation with The Vortex, a play about society drug-taking which he wrote and acted in. Needing peace to capitalise on his success as a writer, he took a cycling holiday to Romney Marsh in Kent. an other-worldly wetland area where grazing sheep wander in fields dissected by empty lanes and watery ditches, They discovered a cottage for Noel to rent next to the 18th-century Star Inn in St Mary in the Marsh, a village close to seaside Dymchurch. On sunny days, Noel could be seen writing, leaning against a tombstone in the village graveyard. He loved the area so much he bought 17th-century Goldenhurst Farm in Aldington as his country retreat, and lived there for most of the next three decades.
Photo: Beckett’s Bridge, Romney Marsh by John Mavin, Wikimedia Commons
Lilian Braithwaite, star of The Vortex, with Noel
With Gertrude Lawrence in Private Lives, 1931
Entertaining the troops in Ceylon during WWII
Romney Marsh, Kent
Despite his famously plummy voice, Noel Coward came from an ordinary home in Teddington, Middlesex, near London, where his mother in particular encouraged his talent. He began work as an actor aged 11 then, in the early 1920s, became a West End sensation with The Vortex, a play about society drug-taking which he wrote and acted in. Needing peace to capitalise on his success as a writer, he took a cycling holiday to Romney Marsh in Kent. an other-worldly wetland area where grazing sheep wander in fields dissected by empty lanes and watery ditches, They discovered a cottage for Noel to rent next to the 18th-century Star Inn in St Mary in the Marsh, a village close to seaside Dymchurch. On sunny days, Noel could be seen writing, leaning against a tombstone in the village graveyard. He loved the area so much he bought 17th-century Goldenhurst Farm in Aldington as his country retreat, and lived there for most of the next three decades.
Photo: Beckett’s Bridge, Romney Marsh by John Mavin, Wikimedia Commons
The French Riviera
The Grand Duke was dancing a foxtrot with me
When suddenly Cyril screamed “Fiddledidee”
And ripped off his trousers and jumped in the sea
I couldn't have liked it more!
I Went to A Marvellous Party was a song Noel Coward wrote about revelries on the French Riviera in its 1920s and 1930s heydays.
London
The Vortex, a play about cocaine use in society, written by and starring Noel was his first hit and a sensational one. It was first played at The Everyman in Hampstead (now the Everyman Cinema.
HE HOUSE in which Sir Noel Coward wrote and rehearsed some of his most famous plays was listed yesterday as a Grade II building because of its historical associations.
Sir Noel lived on the top two floors of the house in Gerald Road near Sloane Square, central London, from 1930 until 1956 when he left England for tax exile in Bermuda.
https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/sir-noel-coward-gerald-road 1930-1956
America
Dreaming of seeing his name in lights on Broadway, Noel sailed to America on a one-way ticket in xx. “I am most great to America; it stimulates me and changes my direction.” January 1947. Noel first went to the US aged 21 in an unsuccessful attempt to hit the big time - though he did gather material for Hay Fever.
Portmeirion, Wales
https://www.noelcoward.com/blog/hail-to-thee-blithe-spirit
During the war. In 1941 he visited.
“We sat on the beach with our backs against the sea wall and discussed my idea exclusively for several hours … By lunchtime the title had emerged together with the names of the characters, and a rough, very rough, outline of the plot.
“Also 1941 Had a few drinks. Pretty bad blitz, but not as bad as Wednesday. A couple of bombs fell very near during dinner. Wall bulged a bit and door blew in. Orchestra went on playing, no one stopped eating or talking. Blitz continued. Carroll Gibbons played the piano, I sang, so did Judy Campbell and a couple of drunken Scots Canadians. On the whole a strange and very amusing evening. People's behaviour absolutely magnificent. Much better than gallant.
St Margaret’s Bay, Kent
Noel Coward put this super little bay near Dover on the map when he leased a beach house feet from the waves White Cliffs in 1945. It had been damaged by practising for D-Day Landings, which enabled him to rebuild and decorate it. He wrote and painted there. Actor friends including Katherine Hepburn (who swam in the bay no matter what weather) and Spencer Tracey drove down from London to visit.Played canasta, hear his latest songs, watched amateur dramatics at Deal. Took trips to Paris forlinch with Coco Chanel and cocktails at the Cafe de Paris. Loaned it the Duke of Kent and his family when he was away. Unfortunately his presence turned it into a draw and in 1951, complaining about the “noisy hoi polloi” he sold it to James Bond author Ian Fleming. He wrote in September “Another perfect day at White Cliffs. I don’t think I can fail to be happy there…Back to London about nine o’clock, full up with sun and sea and fresh air.”
Photo: bvi4092, Flickr Commons
Montreux, Switzerland
In 1958, Coward saw an advertisement in the Daily Telegraph for a chalet set on an estate in Les Avants village in upper Montreux. He snapped it up.
Bought homes in Bermuda, Jamaica and Les Avants in upper Montreux in Switzerland for tax reasons. Goldenhurst Farm, in Aldington Kent: Julian Clary bought it.