Christopher Isherwood’s 1960s diaries come out in November, and the volume is full of nuggets (gossipy and otherwise). Here he is on Mick Jagger, in 1969: “very pale, quiet, good-tempered, full of fun, ugly-beautiful, a bit like Beatrix Lehmann; he has the air of a castaway, someone saved from a wreck, but not in the least dismayed by it.” Isherwood tells his diary that Jagger told him that the real reason the Beatles left Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was that the Maharishi had made a pass at one of them. (Isherwood — himself both an accomplished anecdotist and a famous practitioner of Vedanta — comments: “Am still not sure I believe this story.”) The quote from Jagger, explaining the Beatles’ departure from the Maharishi, may pique the interest of students of British sociology, and of those who wish to reignite the ancient Beatles-vs.-Stones debate. Saith Mick (per Isherwood): “They’re simple north-country lads; they’re terribly uptight about all that.”

(Apropos of which, isn’t it marvelous that, 40 years on, everyone still knows about both the Beatles and the Stones? By way of contrast, imagine what would have happened if you had asked a youth of 1970 about, say, Rudy Vallee and Al Jolson.)

Isherwood is an acute observer, and he got to observe a lot: If you spend years of your life in both Weimar Germany and 1960s Southern California, you will have stories to tell.