Animals

Christopher Isherwood was a celebrated English writer when he met the Californian teenager Don Bachardy on a Santa Monica beach in 1952. They spent their first night together on Valentineâe(tm)s Day 1953. Defying the conventions, the two men began living as an openly gay couple in an otherwise closeted Hollywood.

The Animals provides a loving testimony of an extraordinary relationship that lasted until Chrisâe(tm)s death in 1986 âe" and survived affairs (on both sides) and a thirty-year-age-gap. In romantic letters to one another, the couple created the private world of the Animals. Chris was Dobbin, a stubborn old workhorse; Don was the playful young white cat, Kitty.

But Don needed to carve out his own identity âe" some of their longest sequences of letters were exchanged during his trips to London and New York, to pursue his career as an artist and to widen his emotional and sexual horizons. Amidst the intimate domestic dramas, we learn of Isherwoodâe(tm)s continuing literary success âe"the royalty cheques.