zondag 5 juli 2020

Noël Coward • 4 juli 1943


Noël Coward (1899-1973) was een Britse toneel- en musicalschrijver. Uit The Noël Coward Diaries.

Sunday 4 July 1943
At twelve o'clock the Prime Ministerial car fetched me and drove me to Chequers. Found Mrs Churchill alone and played a little croquet with her. The PM was very amiable and charming. I played 'Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans' over and over again, and he was mad about it.
After tea I had a long talk with him about [Wendell] Willkie and de Gaulle (whom he doesn't like and suspects of being a potential little French Fuehrer). Sarah Churchill [dochter en actrice] appeared on leave. A little more general conversation, then an hour closeted with the PM. during which we played six-pack [bezique] and I took ten shillings off him. At dinner he was very gay and sang old-world Cockney songs with teddy bear gestures. In the course of the day, he admitted that he had been mistaken over the abdication. Mrs Churchill added later that his mistake had been providential because it had kept him out of office at a moment when it would have been compromising. After dinner we saw a news-reel and I played the piano for hours and then left.

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