This is a biography of Kathleen and Frank Isherwood, written by their son who wrote Goodbye to Berlin, A Single Man and Christopher and His Kind. Based on their letters and Kathleen's diary it is the story of their times, and is full of public events and period atmosphere - the relief of Ladysmith, the funeral of Queen Victoria, Bleriot's flight across the English Channel, Sara Bernhardt's Hamlet, the beginning of the troubles in Ireland, hunt balls, changing fashions, servant problems, suffragettes, army life in barracks and in battle.