Whatever other enduring value [The Lyrics of Noël Coward] may turn out to possess, it will always be a fascinating document for the student of theatrical history of the past four and a half decades. For Mr. Coward has always managed to swim so blandly and with such admirable judgment against the current that his actual position at any given time has remained firmly in the centre of the stream, even if obstinately facing in the opposite direction. By deft manipulation of the journalistic properties of any decade he gives his rhymes a patina of polished up-to-dateness which covers an enduring and unchanging nostalgia. But Mr. Coward is clever enough to realize that nostalgia is not "sophisticated", and goes out of his way to dress it in a mild irony. Over and over again, from the almost unbroken series of shows for which Mr. Coward has written...