ISHERWOOD, Christopher.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Mr. Norris Changes Trains. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper to Gerald Hamilton, who inspired the eponymous eccentric Arthur Norris: "To my dear and honoured, from his friend and pupil, the author. 'Yes, Arthur, I do believe it.' Bruxelles. April 1935." The quotation, from page 262 of the novel, is William Bradshaw's consolation to Mr. Norris as he departs Berlin by train.Hamilton has mounted several book reviews from March 1935 to the first and last pages of the book, including William Plomer writing in The Spectator, Cyril Connolly in New Statesman and Nation, and Compton MacKenzie in the Daily Mail, captioning each of them in black ink.A communist-turned-monarchist, urbane but louche, and notorious throughout Europe as a political agitator, Hamilton numbered among his acquaintances Tsar Nicholas II, Guy Burgess, Sir Oswald Mosley, and Aleister Crowley (he and Crowley spied on one another while sharing a flat in Weimar Berlin). It was in the extraordinary milieu of bohemian Berlin that Hamilton first met Isherwood, "a poor and struggling writer", in the early 1930s. They became fast friends, as Hamilton himself recalled: "Isherwood and I visited the highspots of Berlin night-life together, giggled a lot, and attempted to enjoy ourselves on our very limited means... The famous pension referred to in Mr. Norris was visited by me almost daily. I first met the original of Sally Bowles at that pension... Also, before it was ever

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