After the Cabaret

by Hilary Bailey

In 1940, Sally Bowles, that spirited character from Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin, decides to leave her baby daughter with her parents in the country and return to London. There, despite the Blitz, she is determined to live life to the fullest. Moreover, she wants to find the love of her life—the elusive Theo. Despite Theo's absence, Sally cuts swathes across the cold, charmless, and secretive trio of Briggs, Pym, and Bruno. In the late 1990s, young American academic Greg Peters is trying to piece together the missing links of Sally's life for a new biography. He contacts Bruno in London and finds a man tauntingly evasive, knowledgeable but unwilling to comment. But eventually Bruno thaws, leading Greg on a fascinating and tantalizing trail of snippets, facts, and fantasies about the real Sally Bowles.

368 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2012

About the author

Hilary Bailey was a British writer, critic and editor.

Reviews

[Lola Montgomery Marley]

I read this many years ago and found delight in following the later life and times of Sally Bowles