Reader's noteDiscover a sought-after vintage collectible with this horizontal striped orange penguin title! Excerpts and links may be used, provided that the material is credited and referenced to JacquiWine’s Journal with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. While the author's later disillusionment with his own work might have some basis in reality, I found MNCT to be enjoyable nonetheless.

Isherwood did not explicitly claim that he was William Bradshaw although the novel describes Isherwood's own experiences.In addition to his business interests, Norris also has links with the Communist Party, an activity that brings Bradshaw into contact with one of the movers and shakers in the group, a certain Ludwig Bayer.

It gives a true to life picture of life in Germany (mostly in Berlin) during the last years of the Weimar Republic, till about the first year of Hitler's rule and describes a number of characters the author meets/gets acquainted with. A sense of frenetic life, liveliness, wit and urbanity drive the book along, there is certainly more than a touch of fiddling whilst Rome burns about the Weimar republic. Kuno turns out to be gay, interested in a relationship with Bradshaw (he is rejected) and in reading English schoolboy books that feature only boys and no adults. His daily grooming regime is very precise and elaborate, not unlike that of a grande dame with lotions and face creams aplenty.In Berlin in 1932, he also began an important relationship with Heinz Neddermeyer, a young German with whom he fled the Nazis in 1933. It’s one of the things that works so well here as I couldn’t help but find Mr Norris engaging in spite of his flaws.