Fifty years after Noël Coward’s death, I toasted him with Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records and friend of Bob Marley
I am on the move. Well, I am 75 and time is running out. My friend Leslie Bricusse, songwriter and showman, lived to 90 and was busy (and travelling the world) to the last. Leslie told me how he had had dinner with the great Hollywood director and screenwriter Billy Wilder, when Wilder was in his mid-nineties. ‘How are you, Billy?’ asked Bricusse. ‘Good,’ said Wilder. ‘I’m working on a new project.’ ‘You know, Leslie,’ he added, ‘I really wasted my eighties.’ There is no time to lose, which is why I am hitting the road with a vengeance. I have just signed up to do a month on the Edinburgh Fringe, followed by a 40-date national tour. My wife thought of the title for the new show. It’s called Gyles Brandreth: Can’t Stop Talking. Before I set off on my UK travels, I am rediscovering the rest of the...
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