William meets Mr Norris on the train to Berlin, and they become good friends. Mr Norris introduces William to a group of people who engage in drunken, sexual partying. He also involves William with the Communist party leaders in Berlin. This was a difficult economic time in Germany. The Nazis were gaining power with their efficient brutal organization. The political scene is viewed through the eyes of the young, politically naive William. Fryer, Jonathan (1977). Isherwood: A Biography. Garden City, NY, Doubleday & Company. ISBN 0-385-12608-5. These moments are designed to show us that Isherwood has a kind of unblinking, unflinching clarity of observation. But their tactlessness, and their abrupt surprising appearance are also very funny. Mr. Norris and the narrator meet on a train coming from The Net heralds into Germany (incidentally, I was worried to learn that ‘Amsterdam is one of the most dangerous cities in Europe, because of its steep stairs, cyclists and canals, most insanitary…’seeing as my daughter is studying there, only this was Mr. Norris speaking and we find he is not the moist reliable personage you will meet, and then it may have been just about right in the 1930s, and even then, it seems as one of the amusing statements made by this modern day Munchausen) where the fifty three year old passenger is worried about passport control.

Spender, Stephen (30 October 1977). "Life Wasn't a Cabaret". The New York Times. New York City. p.198 . Retrieved 11 February 2022. Of the novel, Wikipedia says “Although Mr Norris Changes Trains was a critical and popular success, Isherwood later condemned it, believing that he had lied about himself through the characterization of the narrator and that he did not truly understand the suffering of the people he had depicted. In an introduction to a 1956 edition of Gerald Hamilton's memoir Mr Norris and I, Isherwood wrote: Mr Norris, based on Isherwood's friend, Gerald Hamilton, is a charming, nervous, middle-aged man whose lifestyle is supported by conning people, selling secrets, and other criminal activities. He's a bit of a comical, prissy figure with a wig that has a tendency to sit off-center. He has regular appointments with Anni, a woman with tall boots and a whip. William meets Mr Norris on the train in the first chapter, and, sadly, there aren’t that many trains afterwards. Sadly, as I love reading about what happens on the trains. Mr Norris, while keeping up the appearances of a refined Englishman of delicate sensibilities, seems rather murky.

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Mr Norris’s murky affairs appear to go downhill. He had been receiving mysterious telegrams from Paris which William and Fraulein Schroeder steamed open. They appeared to come from a woman named Margot and described his presents to her – must be a code, William decides. Allen, Brooke (19 December 2004). "Isherwood: The Uses of Narcissism". The New York Times. New York City . Retrieved 11 February 2022. The real Isherwood, though not without many sympathetic qualities, was petty, selfish and supremely egotistical. The least political of the so-called Auden group, Isherwood was always guided by his personal motivations rather than by abstract ideas. My first reaction was to feel, perhaps unreasonably, angry, I had to admit to myself that my feeling for Arthur had been largely possessive. He was my discovery, my property. I was as hurt as a spinster who had been deserted by her cat. And yet, after all, how silly of me. Arthur was his own master; he wasn’t accountable to me for his actions. I began to look round for excuses for his conduct, and, like an indulgent parent, easily found them. Hadn’t he, indeed, behaved with considerable nobility? Threatened from every side, he had face his troubles alone. He had carefully avoided involving me in possible future unpleasantness with the authorities.”

Sospirò. “Sono troppo vecchio per questo genere di storie. Questi continui viaggi … mi fanno molto male”. Isherwood 1976, p.63: "Jean moved into a room in the Nollendorfstrasse flat after she met Christopher, early in 1931."Norris’ finances clearly are a mess and his source of income unclear and vague. The role of Schmidt, who is particularly aggressive, is also unclear. 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. However, his political career starts to take off when the Nazis take power. Norris disappears for a while and then turns up again, sans Schmidt and takes a room at Fräulein Schroeder’s, where Bradshaw is staying. He receives mysterious telegrams from Paris (which Bradshaw and Fräulein Schroeder often steam open) from someone called Margot. He also seems to be financially in better shape than before, till Schmidt turns up, demanding money with menaces. With the Nazis on the rise, Norris plans one last coup, with the help of Bradshaw, to put his finances on sound footing. Of course, it doesn’t work out as planned and he turns out to be more pathetic than dangerous. Soon after his return to Berlin William goes round to Arthur’s flat (at 168 Courbierestrasse, a real Berlin street) where the eccentricity builds up. Arthur’s apartment has two doors right next to each other, one is the private entrance, one is marked ‘Import/Export’. A sinister young man with a big head opens the door, takes his coat, and visibly disapproves of his visit. Arthur flusters though, takes William by the hand and escorts him round the oddly arranged flat. I thought of Natalia: she has escaped — none too soon, perhaps. However often the decision may be delayed, all these people are ultimately doomed. This evening is the dress-rehearsal of a disaster. It is like the last night of an epoch. Throughout the 1930s Isherwood wrote novels and essays and collaborated with his friend from prep school, W.H. Auden, on three experimental plays – The Dog Beneath the Skin (1935), The Ascent of F6 (1937) and On the Frontier (1938) – as well as writing an extended prose account of their joint visit to China during the Sino-Japanese War, which was published along with Auden’s poems as Journey to a War (1939).