Noel Coward fell in love with Jamaica on sight. The island's beauty, warmth and relaxed way of life made it the perfect refuge from the grey austerity of post-war Europe, and from 1948 onwards he spent as much time there as possible.
High on a hill above the Caribbean he found a limestone building, roofless and abandoned, called Look Out, allegedly once owned by the pirate Henry Morgan. Although the house was uninhabitable the view was sensational. Coward bought the ruin and the surrounding ten acres for a mere [ pound]150, renamed it Firefly and set about making it his private bolthole from the cares of the world.
This beautiful book, published with the approval of the Coward Estate, tells the story of the Firefly years; 'it fills in the one missing part of the Coward jigsaw,' as Sheridan Morley puts it in his Preface. It is illustrated throughout with photographs, painting and drawings from Coward's private albums, many previously unpublished, and with specially taken photographs of Firefly and the island today.
