During the inter-war years, actor-manager, dramatist, singer and composer Ivor Novello was one of the most popular artists on the London stage. Born David Ivor Davies into a musical family in Llwyn-Yr-Eos, near Cardiff, Ivor was the son of musical parents. His mother, known as Madame Clara Novello Davies, was a celebrated singing teacher and choral conductor, who led her Welsh Ladies’ Choir on a tour as far as Chicago only six months after her son’s birth. Like his contemporary and fellow playwright, Noël Coward, Ivor Novello was a little prodigy, having written his first play at the age of seven.

The First World War made him famous overnight with his stirring and sentimental song of 1914, Keep The Home Fires Burning (‘Til

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