Edmund White reviews the final volume of Christopher Isherwood's diaries, Liberation:
After he has lunch with a friend called Bob Regester, who is having problems with his lover, Isherwood writes: "So of course I handed out lots of admirable advice, which I would do well to follow, myself. Don't try to make the relationship exclusive. Try to make your part of it so special that nobody can interfere with it even if he has an affair with your lover. Remember that physical tenderness is actually more important than the sex act itself." We learn that Isherwood and Bachardy no longer have sex but that they consider their relationship to be very physical; they sleep together and they are constantly touching each other. At a certain point Isherwood writes: "I'm glad people have had crushes on me, glad I used to be cute; it is a very sustaining feeling." He understands the vagaries of love better than anyone and he feels (partly to Bachardy but largely to the gods) gratitude, the most appropriate of all the amorous emotions.
The Dish 