Barry Day speaks on Raymond Chandler.

On Gary Shapiro's radio program From the Bookshelf, Barry Day (known for his works on Noel Coward) discusses his new book The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words, in which he endeavors to show what Chandler thought of his own work. Day highlights Chandler's emphasis on language rather than plot or character, his admiration for the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and his dislike of the work of Ernest Hemingway.

Mad about the boy.

Noel Coward. NYPL.

Via a Noel Coward Foundation grant, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has digitized photos from numerous Coward productions. View them in this Web exhibition. (Richard Chamberlain in Blithe Spirit? Tallulah Bankhead in Private Lives? Broderick Crawford in Point Valaine?)

The Master's voice.

Noel Coward on
What's My Line?

Catch this Paley Center excerpt from "I Like America: Noel Coward in the USA" on the occasion of Coward's December birthday, which includes an excerpt from "Mad Dogs and Englishmen." The center also offers "Noel Coward on Television" by Barry Monush, which features a clip from a 1956 TV version of Blithe Spirit that starred Coward, Lauren Bacall, and Claudette Colbert.

Noel Coward turns detective this week on BBC Radio 7.

Mad dogs and Englishman detect ... Actor-director-playwright-composer Noel Coward adds investigator to his long resume in Marcy Kahan's Design for Murder this week on BBC Radio 7. Go here for the schedule or to listen; episodes can usually be heard for a week after broadcast.

About the image: Noel Coward in Our Man in Havana (dir. Carol Reed, 1959)

Mystery-related bookplates.

Lewis Jaffe, on his blog Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie, has a few mystery-related ones posted:

• E. V. and Laura Vanderstoep's bookplates with fingerprints

• S. Davis Levin's Conan Doyle Collection

• Sherlock Holmes-related bookplates here and here from bookseller-publisher Helan Halbach

• One for Muriel Clark Corby with a raven, which seems Poe-inspired to me.

• Arthur Conan Doyle's bookplate

• H. P. Lovecraft's bookplate

• Erle Stanley Gardner bookplates

And there's also the "Insane Department" at Philadelphia Hospital.

As I'm a Noel Coward fan, be sure to check out Sir Noel's bookplate.

About the image: Sherlockian Bookplates by William E. Butler, published by Primrose Hill Press

A Talent to Amuse.

In conjunction with its revival of Present Laughter, Britain's National Theatre honors writer, director, actor, playwright, and composer Noel Coward with an exhibition, "Star Quality," through March. For further information, go here. For BBC interview clips with Coward, go here. For his inimitable performance of "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," go here.