Clemence Dane CBE was an accomplished novelist, playwright, Hollywood screenwriter, journalist, broadcaster, artist, sculptor and pioneering feminist.
Between World Wars I and II she was arguably Britain’s most successful all-round writer, with a unique place in literary, stage and cinematic history. Her bibliography includes 12 novels, 30 plays, 4 detective stories and the memoir London Has a Garden.
Colourful, eccentric, clever and kind, she was used by Noel Coward, the brightest star in her extraordinary circle of friends, as the inspiration for Madame Arcati in his play Blithe Spirit. Her portrait is now in the National Portrait Gallery.