Trivia

The celebrated war-poet Siegfried Sassoon was visiting Venice when Ivor Novello was in the Italian city shooting The Man Without Desire (1923). At that time, Sassoon confided to his diary his dislike of Novello, whom he associated with the smash-hit song of the First World War, "Keep The Home Fires Burning", the tune of which Novello had written. However, a couple of years later, in 1924, when Novello was in the West End starring in his own play, "The Rat", Sassoon became involved in a whirlwind love affair with the devastatingly handsome actor. Novello seems to have seduced and then discarded Sassoon in a matter of only a few weeks, leaving the poet emotionally bruised and embittered. Significantly, Sassoon destroyed his diary entries for the period of his affair with Novello.