Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) was an English-born writer who lived much of his life in Santa Monica, California. (The English seem to settle naturally into Santa Monica.) He is best known for The Berlin Stories, fictional accounts of his experiences living in Berlin in the years between the wars. These stories were adapted to the stage play I Am A Camera and to the musical Cabaret.

Prater Violet, published in 1945, is a novella about making a movie for a London studio in the mid-1930s. The hero, a fictionalized Christopher Isherwood, is hired to write the screenplay for the project and also to act as studio liason with the brilliant but difficult Austrian director. Prater Violet, the title of the film within the story, is a fairly ordinary formula romance which nevertheless benefits from the talented attentions of the director and other creative individuals assigned to the film.

Isherwood's observations of the studio scene are witty and perceptive. He lampoons the characters he encounters but with great affection. In Cabaret our fascination with the wickedness of the Berlin nightclub scene teeters between guilty embrace and horror at the Nazi corruption beneath it. Prater Violet is a more satirical work but it also operates in a clearly defined context. The fictional director has left his family behind in Vienna and is most anxious for their safety as Dollfuss and other Nazi appeasers ruthlessly suppress a labor uprising. Technicians at the studio talk of going on holiday to the continent, "if it's still there." The seismic tremor of world events shakes the studio but work on the little bouquet, Prater Violet, continues.

Christopher Isherwood is the author of over twenty books and, in collaboration with W.H. Auden, several plays. His books are available from both Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com.

Cabaret with Liza Minelli, Michael York and Joel Grey is available for rent or purchase from many sources. Netflix has very attractive DVD rental by mail service. Click on the logo to visit their site: