Books, Arts & Manners

Noël Coward: A Biography, by Philip Hoare (Simon & Schuster, 527 pp., $30)

ON July 4, 1940, Noël Coward sent a telegram to Gertrude Lawrence on the occasion of her wedding to Richard Aldrich: “Dear Mrs. A / Hooray hooray / At last you are deflowered / On this as every other day /I love you, Noël Coward.” You’ll find it in every book and every revue on the subject and, even though Philip Hoare’s biography is by far the most interesting to appear in recent years, you’ll find it here, too. It’s typical of Coward’s wit, at least to this extent: it’s about him. In light verse, the jokes are the rhymes, and, if I were the recipient, I’d be a little miffed that he’d chosen not to match “Gertie” with “flirty,” or “Lawrence” with “torrents” (more an Ira Gershwin coupling, that one), but to save the big flamboyant rhyme for himself. Were it not my wedding day, when I had other things on my mind, I might resent the fact that, although supposedly a close friend, I appeared to have received some sort of generic insert-name-of-recipient-here witticism from Hallmark’s upscale “Very Noël Coward” line.

About the Author

Mark Steyn

Mark Steyn is an international bestselling author, a Top 41 recording artist, and a leading Canadian human-rights activist.

Featured Tags

Noël Coward: A Biography, by Philip Hoare (Simon & Schuster, 527 pp., $30)

ON July 4, 1940, Noël Coward sent a telegram to Gertrude Lawrence on the occasion of her wedding to Richard Aldrich: “Dear Mrs. A / Hooray hooray / At last you are deflowered / On this as every other day /I love you, Noël Coward.” You’ll find it in every book and every revue on the subject and, even though Philip Hoare’s biography is by far the most interesting to appear in recent years, you’ll find it here, too. It’s typical of Coward’s wit, at least to this extent: it’s about him. In light verse, the jokes are the rhymes, and, if I were the recipient, I’d be a little miffed that he’d chosen not to match “Gertie” with “flirty,” or “Lawrence” with “torrents” (more an Ira Gershwin coupling, that one), but to save the big flamboyant rhyme for himself. Were it not my wedding day, when I had other things on my mind, I might resent the fact that, although supposedly a close friend, I appeared to have received some sort of generic insert-name-of-recipient-here witticism from Hallmark’s upscale “Very Noël Coward” line.