Journey of No Return: Five German Speaking Literary Exiles in Britain,

Among the 70,000 refugees from Nazi Germany who had entered Britain by 1939 were many intellectuals of the Weimar era. This book tells the story of five emigre writers, three German, two Austrian - the Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig, the leading Berlin theatre critic Alfred Kerr, the popular lyric poet Max Herrmann-Neisse, the radical, pacifist journalist Karl Otten, and the Austrian novelist and parodist Robert Neumann. All were banned from publishing in Germany from which they fled for their lives. Only Zweig was already known in Britain. Using unpublished diaries, letters and government records, the author describes the difficult often dramatic and tragic lives of these men and their families. New light is thrown on London publishing and, in particular, on the wartime BBC, especially the new German Service. Attention is also focused on the political disputes among the emigre's; also on those who tried to help them. These exile writers were harshly treated by a less cosmopolitan and more ignorant society than today's.
This book aims to rescue their lives and work, recreating circumstances, experiences and achievements which would otherwise be lost to British 20th century cultural and multi-cultural history. There are quotations in the text in English from the work of all five authors.