I bought this and two other Isherwood books in the Bookpeople's summer sale, for an insanely low price - it worked out at about 50p a book. Couldn't resist.

This is such a wonderful read celebrating odd little characters. But it's also rather sad as it's saying goodbye, not just because this is from the 1930s and most of them will have passed on, but because through the book the Nazi movement starts to creep in, and you realise these people are either going to change, or are going to have to leave the country if they're to survive. It is a little creepy how there's tiny side notes to the Nazis to begin with, like they're just some lunatic fringe no one need really think about, and by the end they're in power, attacking people in the streets, taking businesses off the Jews and ... it's horrible. And the second world war hasn't started yet. History tells us that a lot worse is yet to come.

The book is written as long chapters about various friendships Christopher Isherwood (a ficitonal version he tells us in the foreword) has whilst he is living in Berlin and working as a private English tutor. I think one of the most iconic characters, and the one who graces the cover of my copy, is Sally Bowles. She's a bit of a pre Holly Golighty, all the way from England wanting to become a famous actress. She's run away from her noble roots in England, and spends her days singing in nightclubs, having affairs and practically living off prairie oysters. Her German is wonderfully dreadful and we are treated to some of it - even me who hasn't spoken a word of German for 17 years and has pretty much forgotten it all, can understand her =) Even though she is fickle and shallow, she is such a wonderful character. Loved it when she appeared.

We are also treated to the characters at one of the boarding houses where Isherwood lives; a German-English sort of homosexual couple, Otto and Peter - I say sort of because Otto appears to be bisexual and I don't know whether they were a couple? Otto only appears for the money and then is running around after lots of woman before running off completely; a poor German family, the Nowaks, whom Isherwood boards with a time and are also incidentally Otto's family; and a rich Jewish family who run one of the department stores in the city.

Isherwood writes so beautifully that it is a pleasure to read and really transports you back to this lost era.

Went for a walk round Byland and Oldstead. Drove up through Oulston to get there and discovered this new phone box exchange!

Left two books, took two books.