Page "Glen Byam Shaw" Paragraph 7

The leading actress Constance Collier was impressed by Byam Shaw and used her influence to gain him roles.

Among those to whom she introduced him was Ivor Novello, then a leading figure in London theatre.

She directed them both in the play Down Hill in 1926.

Novello was a predatory and often heartless homosexual, and Byam Shaw emerged from a brief relationship with him emotionally bruised.

This drew him into contact with the poet Siegfried Sassoon, a friend of Collier ; he, too, had been hurt by a relationship with Novello, and he and Byam Shaw became close.

Their friendship lasted for the rest of Sassoon's life, although they ceased to be partners quite quickly ; Sassoon became involved with Stephen Tennant, and Byam Shaw fell in love with an actress, Angela Baddeley.

They married in 1929.

The marriage, which lasted until her death in 1976, was, Denison writes, " a supremely happy one, both domestically and professionally ".

They had a son and a daughter.