Some books have to be read at the right time to be appreciated. I guess this is one of those books for me. I bought it because ‘Hay Fever’ was the first play I saw in London and I loved it, so I had some sentiment for Noel Coward. I expected witty stories, with good sense of humor and some sarcasm. Unfortunately it did not turn out as expected.

The book is a collection of four stories and I bravely read three of them, giving up on the fourth. They all describe privileged British people and some of their struggles. Language is very elegant but a touch cold and distant for me. There is not much humor in the stories, they are a bit like cold observation of another species. I got most involved in Mrs Ebony story, a meditation of an older woman on loss and grief. Penny Dreadful was sort of entertaining but not as much as Coward’s plays. At ‘Bon Voyage’ I decided to not finish the book, being yet again presented with the cast of rich unsympathetic people.

I really tried but in the end I had to cut my losses. Now I know that with Noel Coward I’m better off going to the theater than bookshop.

Photo by Violetta Kaszubowska @ vkphotospace