Dust jacket slightly darkened on the spine. A presentation copy, inscribed “Clemence Dane from Christopher Hassall 1938”. The remarkable Clemence Dane - described by the V&A who have lots of her archive as “The Invisible Woman of British 20th Century Culture” - was a playwright, artist, screenwriter and novelist. She was a close friend of Noel Coward and was the model for his Madame Arcarti in Blithe Spirit. Her connection with Hassall would have been through Ivor Novello - she adapted Max Beerbohm’s The Happy Hypocrite for the stage with Novello as Lord George Hell and produced a fine bronze bust of Novello in the part, a cast of which is memorial to him in the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
