callmemadam | Entries tagged with noel coward

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Yesterday, I noticed that Channel 4 was showing the Noel Coward/David Lean collaboration This Happy Breed (1944) at midday, so I recorded it to watch in the evening while progressing slowly with my Aran knitting. Channel 4 sneered before the film started, ‘Now we go frightfully British’. The listings mag called it ‘a quaint portrait’. OK, it may be a rather sentimental portrayal of lower middle class life, but I love this film. I think it’s essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand how the British once liked to see themselves. It’s also useful for readers of inter-war novels; the interiors and clothes are fascinating.
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There's a little city flower,
Every spring unveiling,
Growing in the crevices,
By some London railing.
Though it has a Latin name
In town and countryside,
We in England call it
London Pride.

London Pride has been handed down to us,
London Pride is a flower that's free.
London Pride means our own dear town to us,
And our pride it forever will be.

Noel Coward

If London Pride, Saxifraga x urbium, were rare and hard to grow, everyone would rave about its darling frothy little flowers thriving valiantly in gloomy and difficult conditions.