The subtitle of Oliver Soden’s biography of Noël Coward suggests that the reader will be presented with versions of Coward and be talked through each. This reader could discern only one life: that of performer. Although he made the occasional departure from the world of greasepaint – such as when he worked for the government before and during the Second World War – his life was basically one massive act of self-reinvention from struggling actor living with
In 1611, the Somerset-born traveller Thomas Coryat described an Italian architectural novelty: a ‘very pleasant little tarrasse, that jutteth or butteth out from the maine building: the edge whereof is decked with many pretty little turned pillers … to leane over’. England’s introduction to the balcony came over a decade after the first performance of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. When it was staged in the summer of 1596, just before London’s playhouses were closed owing to a resurgence of plague, the exchange now universally known as the ‘balcony scene’ was probably transacted at a window opening onto the backstage
AT THE AUCTION sale of his possessions a few months after his death in 1926, Rudolph Valentino was found to have owned 51 suits, 111 ties, 60 pairs of gloves, 146 pairs of socks, 10 pairs of suspenders, 6 pairs of garters (with tassels) and 110 silk handkerchiefs. Among the jewellery was the platinum slave […]
The Kennedy family has so often been likened to the House of Atreus in Greek mythology that the comparison has become something of a cliché. But reading this absorbing, first-rate and scholarly study of the founding father, Joseph Kennedy, makes one realise how apt the analogy is. Atreus originally brought down the curse by killing […]
When Kenneth MacMillan was fourteen, as he related forty years later, ‘I woke up one day … to find that everything had crystallised. I had to be a ballet dancer.’ He screwed up his courage and went to see the local dancing teacher in Great Yarmouth. He tapped on her door and blurted out, ‘I […]
Like the American actress Tallulah Bankhead, the Australian-born Coral Browne was celebrated not only for her mastery of any role, however feebly written or demanding, but also for her imperious elegance and savage wit. As with Bankhead, the edge of that wit was continually sharpened by the word to which the subtitle of this biography […]
DeMille is not a name that has lived on, like Hitchcock, Welles or Ford. Yet in his time Cecil B DeMille was the most commercially successful showman-autocrat in Hollywood, whose films by 1942 were estimated to have sold 800 million tickets. An unashamed vulgarian, he capitalised on subjects that one is supposed to avoid in […]
To Guardian readers, the premise of State of the Nation will come as no surprise. A history of British theatre since the war, it makes no mention of theatre in its main title, following Michael Billington’s belief that a nation and its theatre are inseparable. I share that belief, though always with relief that I […]
It is surprising to find Philip Ziegler writing a theatrical biography. His background is in heavyweight (well, middleweight, anyway) political biography – Mountbatten, Edward VIII, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath. I have always found him to be too reverential and pro-Establishment, so I did not have high expectations when I picked up this book. However, Ziegler […]
ven the most fervent Ava Gardner fans would have trouble claiming she could act. She lacked focus, timing, subtlety, inwardness and other basic thespian talents. An affectation of headstrong sassiness was her main strength. But she was undoubtedly a star.
Ben Urwand’s exposé of Hollywood’s dealings with the Third Reich could have been a fine book. It rests on original research and contains significant archival findings. But the analysis is compromised by an overheated narrative style, irresponsible language and a lack of contextualisation.
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm