| Description | Entries dated Friday 1 January 1954 to 28 December 1954.
Coward comments on work on 'After the Ball' and an adaptation of Oscar Wilde's 'Lady Windermere's Fan'. In March he publishes his second and last volume of autobiography, 'Future Indefinite'; there is reference to cabaret performances at the Cafe de Paris where he met Joe Glaser and initial arrangements made for Coward to perform for a season in Las Vegas. There are a number of comments about John 'Jack' Wilson, Wilson's failing health and Coward's concerns and frustrations about him.
On 31 January Coward notes the death of Moya Nugent, and on 1 July comments on the death of his mother, Violet. In February entries refer to his work on 'Nude with Violin'. In September he visits Italy and travels to Capri. In November Coward appeared at the Royal Command Performance at the London Palladium; and, in December, visits Las Vegas.
People referenced in the journal include Cole Lesley; Graham Payn; Mary Ellis; Hugh 'Binkie' Beaumont; John Perry; Robert 'Bobbie' Helpmann; Doris Zinkeisen; Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh; John 'Jack' and Natasha Wilson; Mary Martin and Richard Halliday; Adele Astaire and Kingman Douglass; John Pringle; Norman Hackforth; Carmen Pringle; Sylvia Foot; Edward Molyneux; Moya Nugent; Lee Shubert; Dorothy di Frasso; Duff Cooper; Chester Wilmot; Spiro de Spero Gabriele ['Sparky']; Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal; Marlene Dietrich; Max Gordon; Joyce Carey; Gladys Calthrop; Clemence 'Winnie' Dane; Princess Mary, Princess Royal; Earl of Harewood and Marion Stein; Ian and Margaret, Duke and Duchess of Argyll; Violet Coward; Princess Margaret; Joyce Grenfell; Joe Davis; Lavinia Annaly; Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother; Rebecca West; William 'Willie' Somerset Maugham; Ginette Spanier; Katharine Hepburn; Constance Collier; Paolo Langheim; Beatrice 'Beattie' Lillie; Gracie Fields; Sam Spiegel; Rex Harrison; Kay Kendall; Charles Russell; Lance Hamilton; Dennis Price; Margot Grahame; Irene Handl; Val Parnell; Bob Hope; Jack Buchanan; Norman Wisdom; Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; Vanessa Lee; Ann 'Annie' and Ian Fleming; Judy Montagu; Alistair Forbes; Alex Korda; Georges Simenon; Lord [Frederic] Maugham; Joe Glaser; Fanny Holtzmann; Maurice Winnick; Johnny G. Graham; Nancy Hamilton; Cyril Ritchard; Clifton Webb; Samuel Goldwyn; Darryl Zanuck; Fritzi Massary; John 'Johnny' Gielgud |