Björn Östbring

Brev till Elizabeth Bowen, september 1938. Isaiah har åkt nattåg och delat kupé med en hästhandlare.

In some wayside station at 6. am. men in pyjamas ran out & bought newspapers, with Chamberlain’s journey in them: ‘the war is postponed’ said my horsedealer & then something like ‘whizzbang’ & went to sleep again.

[. . .]

[The] newspapers read like a cheap serial, Chamberlain from having been a sad, mean, bedraggled figure is a national hero, Runciman sold the Czechs piecemeal & bit by bit while he prepared I think to sell them wholesale.

Isaiah Berlin, Flourishing. Letters 1928—1946, Chatto & Windus, London, 2004, s. 284–85.