SIR Noel Coward was no stranger to Bermuda. During the 1920s and '30s, when he was the toast of Broadway (often starring in plays and musicals he had also written), he came to the island for short holidays aboard the liners that saile d between New York and the island. On one such visit to Bermuda he is said to have encountered the ghost of a pretty French stowaway, an incident that planted a seed which eventually blossomed into Blithe Spirit, possibly his best loved play.

Coward published over 50 plays during his lifetime and wrote hundreds of songs as well as short stories. screenplays and the novel Pomp and Circumstance. He also received a certificate of merit at the 1943 Academy Awards for his film In Which We Serve which Sir Noel wrote, starred in, composed the music for and co-directed alongside David Lean.

Sir Noel moved to Bermuda as a full-time resident in 1956 and purchased the home Spithead Lodge on Harbour Road in Warwick.

His reason for the move at the time was to escape "the monstrously unjust tax situation in England." He stayed in Bermuda for two years and later moved full time to Jamaica, where he was a neighbour to James Bond creator Ian Fleming. Sir Noel lived there until his death in 1973.

During his time spent in Bermuda he wrote the musical Sail Away and enjoyed our island and culture.

Sir Noel describes one of his memories of Bermuda in his diary from 1956. Recorded Sir Noel: "Every morning at about noon a crowded ferry boat passed and the gentleman in charge announces places of interest through a loudspeaker. His voice echoes across the water, and when the boat passes Spithead Lodge I hear him explaining that whereas the house was originally the home of Eugene O'Neill, the celebrated American playwright, it is now the new home of none other than Noel Coward.

"The first time I heard this I was swimming along doing a stately Margate breast-stroke with my head high out of the water. I looked up in dismay, saw about twenty nuns peering at me through binoculars, and sank like a stone.

"I don't really mind this daily publicity but unfortunately it does encourage the boat's passengers to spring into taxis the moment they land and come belting out to stare at me over the wall and take photographs."

Graham Payn, partner to Sir Noel for three decades and later the excutor of his estate, described some of his memories of their time together in Bermuda at a university symposium on Coward held in California.

Mr. Payn said: "Noel was a terrible cook! Awful cooking - oh my God, yes! When he bought a house in Bermuda, there was a problem of domestic staff.

"You certainly couldn't get a cook, and he said, 'Oh, that's no problem at all, I'll do the cooking!' Uh, God! His idea of cooking was to get every spice and every herb possible and throw it into whatever it was he was mixing up.

"Oh, it was a terrible time we went through! But he loved it. It was very hot, as you know, in Bermuda in the summer and when he was in the kitchen, he didn't wear any clothes at all, virtually nothing, except a little apron - a plastic thing - here in front -was all.

"And one day he was busy in there and there was a knock on the kitchen door and he went and answered it and it was the Bishop of Bermuda. And he said, "Oh! hello. Oh, how nice to see you. Do come in, do come in, but please, wait one minute. I'm about to see what's in the oven!" Noel went over to the oven, leaned down and said: "Oh drat! Oh, it's all right. It's perfectly well, thank you." I think he had quite forgotten he was practically naked and he frightened the hell out of the Bishop. When Noel turned around he was gone ¿ last seen running up the garden path. I hear he was a nice chap but we never saw him again.

"Noel was also a great speed merchant, you know. He drove his cars very fast, even in Bermuda, and he bought a speedboat and this he loved. He used to zoom across the sound to Hamilton, go to the supermarket, buy more herbs and spices to come back and zoom back to make another awful dish for us to eat. Anyway, we had a lovely time there."