The Temple

First paperback edition

To the Oxford undergraduates Paul, Simon, and William (characters Spender based closely upon himself, W.H. Auden, and Christopher Isherwood) the Weimar Republic seems a kind of paradise. Simon puts it this way: "Germany is the only place for sex. England's no good". During parties in the Bauhaus salons of Hamburg and pleasure-trips along the Rhine, Paul falls in love with "The Children of The Sun", as young germans call themselves - untill the shadow of Nazism begins to loom over them all.

Stephen Spender was born in London in 1909. Widely regarded as one of the most important writers of his generation, he produced numerous indispensable literary works. He died 1995.