On 10 January Westbury & District u3a members were highly entertained by Mr Peter Gill on The Wit & Songs of Noël Coward; what a wonderful, colourful character Mr Coward was! Peter talked about Noël, and sang a good few of his songs - he has a lovely, strong singing and speaking voice and we, as a club, would highly recommend booking him for any groups you belong to!

Amongst others, Peter gave superb renditions of “Mad Dogs and Englishmen”, “Mrs Worthington”, and “London Pride”; he clearly loves what he does and his enthusiasm is infectious.

Peter also shared some of Noël’s quotes, many about himself, such as: ‘I'm an enormously talented man, and there's no use pretending that I'm not.’, and from Bea Lillie; ‘Noël and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noël's door and he asked, ‘Who is it?’ I lowered my voice and said, ‘Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?’ He answered, ‘Just a minute, I'll ask him.’ His quick wit must surely have kept those around them on their toes!

Peter left many of us eager to know more about Mr Coward and I, for one, will be downloading a batch of his songs and reading as much as I can about this amazing entertainer the world is unlikely to see the like of again, though a close runner-up was mentioned - the late, great Victoria Wood.

An excellent few hours’ entertainment that has kept me chuckling to myself since!