Liverpool has many outstanding 1930s/Art Deco buildings, many of which were the work of architect Herbert Rowse. But Rachel in Greenbanks (1932) abandons the bright, light, modern cafes "in search of atmosphere" in basement restaurants, perhaps in places like this, Pitt Street in Chinatown (c1934), and meets John in one of them. This, of course, prefigures The Cavern and other basement music venues of the 1950s and 1960s. Indeed, the Liverpool Dorothy Whipple describes is very much the same city that influenced the four Beatles: the westward-facing location, the ships and sailors bringing in new and exciting goods, in their case American music long before the rest of the UK heard it. Rachel also discovers and takes home "strange presents" such as a persimmon and "a queer little foreign melon".