NOEL COWARD

An exhaustive biography most likely contains more material than is of real interest to any given user. It functions as a reference work, which one skims in one place, studies in another and consults to settle questions. The audio version of such a book cannot function in this manner but requires one to move at a uniform pace through a plethora of detail. Still, this is a lively and well-written reference work, which David Case renders in an appropriately theatrical reading, with every quotation delivered in character. He has an archetypical upper-class British manner, which American ears may find supercilious and effeminate, a possible distraction in a book containing continual references to homosexuality. J.N. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 99]