| Description | Entries dated Tuesday 1 January 1946 to Tuesday 31 December 1946.
In January Coward starts work on 'Samolo' with Cole Porter. He refers to the tabloid press, including negative publicity about the cost of repairs to Coward's home [Goldenhurst, which had been requisitioned by the British Army during the Second World War]. 'Sigh No More' closed in January and in February Coward attended Benjamin Britten's opera 'Peter Grimes' as well as the reopening of Covent Garden. In March he attended the final performance of 'Blithe Spirit' and gave a speech; and then visited France and attended a dinner with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, sitting next to Wallis, Duchess of Windsor. In April he comments on gambling at the casino with her. He saw 'Les Parents Terribles' by Jean Cocteau and then heard Edith Piaf sing. He also records the accidental death of Prim [Primula] Niven and, in July, comments on atomic bomb testing by the Americans. In December he writes of the first night of 'Pacific 1860', with numerous comments concerning rehearsals with Mary Martin.
People referenced in the diary include Ivor Novello; Robert 'Bobby' Andres; Joyce Carey; Yvonne Printemps; Graham Payn; 'Chips' Channon; King Paul of Greece; HRH Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent; Violet Coward; Vida Veitch; Robb Stewart; Gladys Calthrop; Bert Lister; Hugh 'Binkie' Beaumont; John 'Jack' Wilson; Princess Natalia 'Natasha' Paley; Sybil Cholmondeley; Winifred Ashton; Richard Addinsell; Sybil Payn; Laurence Olivier; Mary Martin; Countess Torring; Princess Alexandra; Richard 'Dick' Halliday; Lady Diana Cooper; Cole Lesley; Marlene Dietrich; Jean Gabin; Marguerite Scialtiel; Yves Miraude; Colette; Maxine Elliott; Elsa Schiaparelli; Mary Pickford; Edward Molyneux; Neysa McMein; Jeffrey Holmesdale, Lord Amherst; John Counsell; Grace Moore; Patience Erskine; Prince Littler; Lorn Loraine; Walter Winchell; Lord Louis 'Dickie' Mountbatten; Winston Churchill; Juliet Duff; Felix Youssoupoff; Princess George of Greece [Princess Marie Bonaparte]; Princess Eugenie of Greece; Prince George of Greece; William Somerset Maugham; Robin Maugham; Loelia Westminster; Odette Massigli; Simone and Joe Brandel; John Julius; Lucien Brule; Valentina, fashion designer; Peter Stern [Gladys B. Stern]; Admiral Cunningham; Sibyl Colefax; Ann Rothermere; Peter Quennell; Michael Redgrave; Ian Fleming; Vivien Leigh; Sylvia Cecil; Maria Montez; Jean-Pierre Aumont; Moya Nugent; Betty Hare; Maidie Andrews; Eric and Louise Ambler; Alan Campbell; Beatrice Eden; Katharine Cornell and Guthrie McClintic; Dorothy Dickson; Elsa Maxwell; Zena Dare |