Join us

Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Newsletter

Janette Jenkins

Firefly

Cover: Firefly - Janette Jenkins

Janette Jenkins

Firefly

2013, pp. 156, e-Book
ISBN: 9781609451530
Region: United States
Paper edition Paper edition Paper edition
$ 9.99
READ NOW READ NOW READ NOW

The book

Noël Coward: dramatist, composer, actor, director, lyricist, and at one time the highest-earning author in the western world. He virtually invented the concept of the sophisticated Englishman for the 20th Century. Queen Elizabeth knighted him in 1969, and since his death in 1973, there has not been a time when his plays are not staged (Private Lives), films shown (Brief Encounter) and songs sung (Mad Dogs and Englishmen). An astounding talent, not even his very public homosexuality and his flamboyant lifestyle could diminish his popularity and acclaim. Firefly is Coward’s beloved retreat on a secluded hillside in Jamaica. There, between brandies and cigarettes, the entertainer wiles away his days - a dispiriting pattern of unwanted meals, reluctant walks, graceless swims in the pool – in the company of his man servant, Patrice, and reluctant former lover, Graham Payn. They talk of a London long gone or imagined: Noel’s is peopled with glamorous friends – Redgrave, Taylor, Olivier, O’Toole – Patrice’s a naive vision of elegance and opportunity. Set over a few weeks in the early seventies, Firefly sorts through Coward’s dreams and memories, his successes and regrets against a sultry Caribbean backdrop of blue mountains and endless vistas. By turns revealing, wicked, witty, and unsparing, this sparkling novel is a moving portrait of age and friendship, and a poignant recollection of a life fully lived.

The author

Janette Jenkins
Janette Jenkins is the author of the novels Columbus Day, Another Elvis Love Child, Angel of Brooklyn and Little Bones. Her short stories have appeared in newspapers and anthologies, and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. In 2003 she was awarded an Alumni Fellowship by the University of Bolton. She lives in Durham, England.

Press

From the same country

  • Cover: Where the Forest Meets the River - Shannon Bowring

    Shannon Bowring

    Where the Forest Meets the River

    2024, pp. 336, $ 18.00
    Return to Dalton as Shannon Bowring draws another stunningly human portrait of small town America.
  • Cover: Bite Your Friends - Fernanda Eberstadt

    Fernanda Eberstadt

    Bite Your Friends

    2024, pp. 288, $ 28.00
    Raw, sinuous, high-stakes, Bite Your Friends is a subversive memoir and a mesmerizing history of the body as a site of resistance...
  • Cover: The Dolphin House - Audrey Schulman

    Audrey Schulman

    The Dolphin House

    2024, pp. 320, $ 17.95
    Based on the true story of the 1965 “dolphin house” experiment, this spellbinding novel captures the tenor of the social experiments of the 1960’s...
  • Cover: The Long Corner - Alexander Maksik

    Alexander Maksik

    The Long Corner

    2023, pp. 288, $ 16.95
    A bold novel about ambition, grief, creativity, beauty, and existential emptiness that retraces the arc of American life and culture in the first...
  • Cover: The Road to Dalton - Shannon Bowring

    Shannon Bowring

    The Road to Dalton

    2023, pp. 250, $ 18.00
    From debut author Shannon Bowring comes a novel of small town America that Pulitzer-winner Richard Russo calls, “measured, wise, and beautiful”.
  • Cover: The Passenger: Space - AA.VV.

    AA.VV.

    The Passenger: Space

    2022, pp. 192, $ 22.00
    Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world. IN THIS...

Join Our Newsletter and receive a FREE eBook!

Stay updated on Europa’s forthcoming releases, author tours and major news.

Are you a bookseller? Click here!

Are you a librarian? Click here!

X