Firefly
  • Published: 27 June 2013
  • ISBN: 9781448129751
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 224

Firefly

Formats & editions
EBook
27 Jun 2013
Paperback
1 Sep 2014
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A short, sparkling novel about the twilight years of Noël Coward’s life, by the author of Angel of Brooklyn.

On a secluded hillside in Jamaica lies Firefly, Noël Coward’s peaceful retreat. Here, between sundowners and sunsets, brandies and cigarettes, the seventy-one-year-old Coward whiles away his days – a comforting, frustrating pattern of unwanted breakfasts, reluctant walks, graceless dips in the pool – in the company of his manservant Patrice.

Both of them dream of a London that is long-gone or imagined: Noël’s peopled with glamorous friends – Redgrave, Olivier, O’Toole – and Patrice’s a picture-postcard vision of elegance and opportunity. Set over a series of summer days in the early 1970s, Firefly flits through Coward’s dreams and memories, his successes and regrets, against a sultry, seductive backdrop of blue skies and glistening water.

'A delightful read'
Ian McKellen
  • Published: 27 June 2013
  • ISBN: 9781448129751
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 224
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About the author

Janette Jenkins

Born in Bolton in 1965, Janette Jenkins studied acting before completing a degree in Literature and Philosophy and then doing an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where she was in Malcolm Bradbury's final class, along with Toby Litt, John Boyne, Richard Beard and Bo Fowler. She is the author of the novels, Columbus Day, Another Elvis Love Child, Angel of Brooklyn, Little Bones and Firefly. Her short stories have appeared in newspapers and anthologies, including Stand Magazine, and have been broadcast on Radio 4. In 2003 she was awarded an Alumni Fellowship by the University of Bolton.

Also by Janette Jenkins

Little Bones
Angel of Brooklyn
See all

Praise for Firefly

What a lovely, clever book! Beautiful, wistful, just right

Julian Clary

Beautiful... This moving novel pays tribute to a great talent as the curtain comes down, in prose that lingers like the echo of a good bay-side martini

Independent

Quietly witty and remarkable in portraying the slipping away of mind and body that comes with old age

Michael Dirda, Washington Post

Perfectly formed

Mark Sanderson, Sunday Telegraph

Firefly shimmers with all the passion and transcience of life

Telegraph

Jenkins shows she has a gift for tender comedy

Scotsman

This elegant novel imagines the final weeks of Noel Coward after he has retired…Jenkins’ Coward is clever and cantankerous to the end

New Yorker

Beautifully observed

New York Times

A moving study

Suzy Feay, Financial Times

I can think of no better companion than Janette Jenkins' pitch-perfect reimagining of a regret-tinged twilight of Noel Coward's life

Harper's Bazaar

A study in melancholy, very well observed

William Leith, Evening Standard

Perfectly-tuned imagining… Jenkins’ telling of it...saves it from any hint of predictability

Lesley Mcdowell, Independent on Sunday

Jenkins’s prose is thoughtful and sensitive…and her depiction of Coward’s final stage performance, which was a disaster, is particularly insightful

Lesley McDowell, 5 stars, Independent On Sunday