COWARD, Noël.

£2,250 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Volcano. An original script for the playwright's salacious drama, never performed in his lifetime, inspired by Ian Fleming's affair with Blanche Blackwell. The two were Coward's neighbours during his time in Jamaica. Coward and Fleming were close friends. In 1948, Coward visited Jamaica, where he rented Goldeneye from Fleming for a week: "On arrival, a boyish, teasing friendship and good-natured rivalry over Jamaica began between Coward and Fleming... Fleming, too, enjoyed the sparring and wrote about the outcome of Coward's first visit... 'He [Coward] then went off, and, as close to me as he could get, built a house (what am I saying - four houses) and - to hell with the charms of Bermuda and Switzerland! - comes here every year" (Brooks, p. 226).Coward's Jamaican home allowed him to observe the actions of his neighbours from a close range: "A complicated web of intrigue which gave Coward ample material for his play" (Hoare). This not only included Fleming and Blackwell's affair, but also that of Fleming's wife Ann with the politician Hugh Gaitskell. Coward would later write about another of Fleming's affairs (with his future wife Ann), in his only novel, Pomp and Circumstance (1960). Provenance: Geoffrey A. Johnson, Coward's close friend and US representative, with his ownership stamps. Johnson (1930-2021) cast over 100 Broadway shows, including Cats, The Phantom of the Opera, and Les Misérables. He first met Coward in 1961, when he worked as the stage manager for the Broad

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