The Memorial

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The First World War is over and Eric Vernon is on the cusp of adulthood.

Tall, bony and awkward, he finds himself torn between a desire to emulate his heroic father, who led a life of quiet sacrifice, and a resentment toward his father's roguish friend Edward Blake, who survived the war only to throw himself into gay life in Berlin and the pursuit of meaningless relationships. Isherwood's witty first foray into autobiographical fiction recalls the aftermath of the First World War and the slow, burning dissolution of tradition-bound English families.

‘Dazzling . . . Pre-eminent for its wit, humour, charm of style and narrative skill’ Guardian

‘In Isherwood's work, a magic potion of history and invention, the voice is clear and, no matter how many times we hear it, it always seems to be speaking for the first time’ New York Times

‘The real thing, the unforced, unfaked writer of genius’ New York Herald Tribune

About Christopher Isherwood

Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) was one of the most celebrated writers of his generation. He left Cambridge without graduating, briefly studied medicine and then turned to writing his first novels, All the Conspirators and The Memorial. Between 1929 and 1939 he lived mainly abroad, spending four years in Berlin and writing the novels Mr Norris Changes Trains and Goodbye to Berlin on which the musical Cabaret was based. He moved to America in 1939, becoming a US citizen in 1946, and wrote another five novels, including Down There on a Visit and A Single Man, a travel book about South America and a biography of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. In the late 1960s and '70s he turned to autobiographical works: Kathleen and Frank, Christopher and His Kind, My Guru and His Disciple and October, one month of his diary with drawings by Don Bachardy.

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