This first volume in the Coward Collection contains four plays written within a two year period when Cowardand the century were still in their 20s. The volume is introduced by Sheridan Morley,Coward's first biographer. Hay Fever, a comedy of badmanners, concerns a weekend with friends of the Bliss family, who haveall been invited independently for a weekend at their country housenear Maidenhead. The Vortexwas a controversial drama in its time, introducing drug-addiction ontothe stage at a time when alcoholism was barely mentioned. Fallen Angels, which is written for two star actresseswas described as 'degenerate', 'vile', 'obscene', 'shocking' - thesecond half of the play is entirely taken up with an alcoholic duologuebetween the two women. Easy Virtue is an elegant, laconic tribute to alost world of drawing-room dramas, no other writer went more directlyto the jugular of that moralistic, tight-lipped but fundamentallyhypocritical 20s society. "He is simply a phenomenon, and one that is unlikely to occur everagain in theatre history" Terence Rattigan

Hay Fever; The Vortex; Fallen Angels; Easy Virtue