Pretty Polly Barlow And Other Stories: Noël Coward

In this volume - three classic Cowards of the best and witty sort. Pretty Polly Barlow: A plain, gauche virgin travels to the Far East with her rich and appalling aunt - and finds herself blossoming into an alluring young woman. Me And The Girls: the intriguing diary of a cabaret performer, looking over his richly purple past with the chorus girls, all their sexual adventures and internecine cat fights as he waits to die in a Swiss chateau; Mrs. Capper's Birthday: Coward effects a change of pace with a heart-warming day in the life of a London daily charlady. There's not so much of the barbed wit about these tales, apart from Me and The Girls - but there is plenty of valid worldly observation.