Book of the week  Blithe spirit  Barry Day offers a richly
complex portrait of a man who knew everyone with his edition of
Noël Coward's letters, says Simon Callow  The Letters of Noël
Coward edited by Barry Day 800pp, Methuen, £25  Noël Coward, who
had a very vivid sense of his own significance, might none the
less be slightly surprised at the hold that the minutiae of his
life continue to exert on the English-speaking public.  The
monumental Theatrical Companion to Coward, four interesting
biographies, the Autobiographies, the Diaries and now the
Letters mean that we know as much about him as he did about
himself - maybe more, since he preferred not to dig too deep,
for fear, as his childhood friend and collaborator Esmé Wynne-
Tyson remarks in one of many striking letters here, that it
might "interfere with your way of living, or alter your attitude
towards life". She adds: "I used to think your habit of evading
a logical issue to an argument through abuse or humour was
weakness. I'm now convinced it's a pr