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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Noel Coward
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(1899–1973, kt 1970) Playwright and actor who personified an elegant, witty and faintly outrageous way of life betwen the wars. He first achieved fame starring in his own play The Vortex in 1924, which he followed with *Hay Fever (1925) and *Private Lives (1930). A patriotic vein evident in his stage extravaganza Cavalcade (1931) came into its own with the wartime film *In Which We Serve (1942); from the same period is his classic *Brief Encounter (1945). He was also an accomplished cabaret performer, singing at the piano his own lyrics such as Mad Dogs and Englishmen (the only two forms of life to go out in the midday sun).
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