The perfect compendium of fact, fiction and the favourite places of the theatrical and literary personalities of the Golden Era in the West End, offers a guide to some of the most glamorous and historic restaurants in London, famous for their theatrical associations�the Caprice, the Savoy, Rules, the Caf� Royal and the Ivy.

There is a range of recipes from the stars of the Golden Age of British theatre, including Rex Harrison, Noel Coward, Vivien Leigh, John Gielgud and Michael Redgrave, many of them classic English recipes but a few surprises as well.

Poetry, quotations and anecdotes are included throughout and you�ll find some old favourites and quite a few new ones. Last but not least, you�ll find a complete history of the West End�s most exciting century since William Shakespeare trod the boards four hundred years ago. If you want to find out what a well-known actress did when her dog left a pool in the back of a cab or when it was all right to leave your dirty teacup on the stage, read on�

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. Virginia Woolf

There are some restaurants which give one sense of being at home, more at home than in a friend's house, welcome, at peace. Rules in Maiden Lane, where I first went more than fifty years ago, is one. I even put it into a novel � The End of the Affair. Graham Greene

THE AUTHOR: Elizabeth Sharland has had three plays produced in New York and two in London. She formed an English-speaking theatre company in Paris, worked for Yul Brynner on Broadway, and has produced Love From Shakespeare To Coward, an anthology about the theatre, based on six years in the West End using over 200 actors in showcases. She is married to a Dublin-born psychiatrist and has one son. She also lectures regularly on the Queen Elizabeth 2, between London and New York. She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and joined the Old Vic Company to tour Australia.