Barry Day – författare

No one in the twentieth century used language with the same precision and wit as Noel Coward. In his plays, his verse, his song lyrics, stories and in everyday life, he chose his words to uniquely stylish and truthful effect. This affectionate portrait of Coward's life includes not only his best-loved witticisms and lyrics, but also excerpts from private papers and hidden gems from unpublished material. Barry Day Delves into the whole range of Coward's talents, as well as his thoughts on a wide variety of subjects - including the theatre, England, the Arts, religion, love and death - all the while giving insights into the man himself.

Although he wrote hundreds of songs and was a key figure in the birth of the American stage musical, P. G. Wodehouse's (1881-1975) long and influential career as a lyricist has been almost completely forgotten and unheralded - until now. Highly regarded by literati for his rich, sardonic Wooster and Jeeves books (among his more than ninety novels and volumes of short stories), Wodehouse broke new ground by writing songs that were cohesively integrated into the narrative action of musicals rather than presented as a string of unrelated tunes, which was the then-standard format. Particularly in the shows he wrote with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern, Wodehouse transformed the musical from a poor man's Gilbert and Sullivan-style operetta into a more idiomatic and respectable form based on contemporary life. This book sets the lyrics from his nearly forty theatrical productions within the context of each individual show, providing incisive and informative commentary for each. Lavishly illustrated with photos and memorabilia, Barry Day establishes why, throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Wodehouse was considered a top-tier theatrical figure on both sides of the Atlantic.

'A uniquely charming and enticing journey through a remarkable life. Coward's own record is made all the more delightful by the wise and helpful interpolations of Barry Day, the soundest authority on the Master that there is.' Stephen Fry 'Precise, witty, remarkably observed and gloriously English' Dame Judi Dench 'Barry Day's analysis is both perceptive and irresistible' Lord Richard Attenborough With virtually all the letters in this volume previously unpublished - this is a revealing new insight into the private life of a legendary figure. Coward's multi-faceted talent as an actor, writer, composer, producer and even as a war-time spy(!), brought him into close contact with the great, the good and the merely ambitious in film, literature and politics.With letters to and from the likes of: George Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woolf, Winston Churchill, Greta Garbo (she wrote asking him to marry her), Marlene Dietriech, Ian Fleming, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, Fred Astaire, Charlie Chaplin, FD Roosevelt, the Queen Mother and many more, the picture that emerges is a series of vivid sketches of Noel Coward's private relationships, and a re-examination of the man himself.Deliciously insightful, witty, perfectly bitchy, wise, loving and often surprisingly moving, this extraordinary collection gives us Coward at his crackling best. A sublime portrait of a unique artist who made an indelible mark on the 20th century, from the Blitz to the Ritz and beyond.

'In my time I have said some noteworthy and exceptionally memorable things' Noel Coward. A delightful and revealing collection of quotations from the master wordsmith, Noel Coward. In his plays, verse, song lyrics, stories and everyday life, he chose his words to uniquely stylish and truthful effect. This insightful portrait includes not only his best-loved witticisms, bons mots and lyrics but also excerpts from his private papers and hidden gems from unpublished material. Barry Day delves into the whole range of Coward's talents, as well as his thoughts on theatre, England, the Arts, religion, life and the man himself. In His Own Words displays the usual frivolity, and a surprising capacity for depth and compassion.

The Complete Verse of Noël Coward brings together the three volumes of verse produced during his lifetime together with previously unpublished material for the very first time. For the legions of fans of The Master, this definitive collection of Coward's verse writings will prove irresistible. ‘Throughout most of the years of my life, since approximately 1908, I have derived a considerable amount of private pleasure from writing verse . . . It is an inherent instinct in the English character.' Beginning with his youthful verse experiments, The Complete Verse arranges in themed chapters Coward's prolific public and personal verse writings. Chapters bring together his verse on a wide variety of subjects including war, the theatre, love, friends, travel, and God and the infinite. It features the satirical ‘cod-pieces' - Chelsea Buns and Spangled Unicorn - and the verse collected in the 1967 volume Not Yet the Dodo. But alongside these are the verses sent to friends and family over many years, in letters, memos and cables, which paint a vivid portrait of his more private life and are published here for the first time. With a linking commentary by editor Barry Day and sprinkled with illustrations throughout, The Complete Verse offers to Coward readers further enjoyment and appreciation of his wit, insatiable interest in people and skilful rendering of his public and private lives.

This collection brings together three of Coward's most important screenplays – In Which We Serve (1942), Brief Encounter (1945) and The Astonished Heart (1950). The collection features the shooting scripts for each film alongside contextual notes for each play, and a general introduction, by Barry Day. In Which We Serve earned Coward an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 as well as the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film. The film remains a classic of wartime British cinema. Brief Encounter, the most famous screenplay in this collection, is based on Coward’s 1936 one-act play Still Life. It remains one of the greatest love stories of all time, coming second in a British Film Institute poll of the top 100 British films. The Astonished Heart tells the story of a psychiatrist's growing obsession for a good-time girl and the resulting tragedy this leads to. This collection features a foreword by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator Emeritus, Film, at New York's MoMA, and an eight-page black and white plate section of production stills.

This collection brings together three of Coward's most important screenplays – In Which We Serve (1942), Brief Encounter (1945) and The Astonished Heart (1950). The collection features the shooting scripts for each film alongside contextual notes for each play, and a general introduction, by Barry Day. In Which We Serve earned Coward an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 as well as the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film. The film remains a classic of wartime British cinema. Brief Encounter, the most famous screenplay in this collection, is based on Coward’s 1936 one-act play Still Life. It remains one of the greatest love stories of all time, coming second in a British Film Institute poll of the top 100 British films. The Astonished Heart tells the story of a psychiatrist's growing obsession for a good-time girl and the resulting tragedy this leads to. This collection features a foreword by Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator Emeritus, Film, at New York's MoMA, and an eight-page black and white plate section of production stills.

Despite her prolific output, ageless writer and wit Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) never penned an autobiography (although if she had, she said that it would have been titled Mongrel). Combing through her stories, poems, articles, reviews, correspondence, and even her rare journalism and song lyrics, editor Barry Day has selected and arranged passages that describe her life and its preoccupations-urban living, the theater and cinema, the battle of the sexes, and death by dissipation. Best known for her scathing pieces for the New Yorker and her membership in the Algonquin Round Table ("The greatest collection of unsaleable wit in America."), Parker filled her work with a unique mix of fearlessness, melancholy, savvy, and hope. In Dorothy Parker, the irrepressible writer addresses: her early career writing for magazines; her championing of social causes such as integration; and the obsession with suicide that became another drama ("Scratch an actor...and you'll find an actress."), literature ("This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.") and much more.