Hunter captures Coward
SIR: I enjoyed Peter Mullen's piece on Noël Coward (April issue) – but am awfully upset to be dismissed as the anonymous ‘reporter’ who apologised for asking him so many questions about himself. And he replied, ‘Not at all – I'm fascinated by the subject…’
I was the Chief Feature Writer of the Sunday Times at the time, don't you know, and still have the visiting card.
I had gone to Switzerland in 1969 to interview Coward for his 70th birthday. The only interview he gave. I later reproduced it in full in a book of interviews called Hunting People, published by Mainstream in 1994. Hurry, hurry, it must be in a charity shop near you.
In it he reveals his latest amusement – putting on a surgical gown and being allowed to go into a hospital operating theatre to watch. He had observed a hysterectomy, childbirth and death: ‘The ovarian cyst