Good Travel Books Are Novels At Heart.

Life, As The Most Ancient Of All Metaphors Insists, Is A Journey; And The Travel Book, In Its Deceptive Simulation Of The Journey's Fits And Starts, Rehearses Life's Own Fragmentation. More Even Than The Novel, It Embraces The Contingency Of Things.

We Need – More Urgently Than Architectural Utopias, Ingenious Traffic Disposal Systems, Or Ecological Programmes – To Comprehend The Nature Of Citizenship, To Make Serious Imaginative Assessment Of That Special Relationship Between The Self And The City; Its Unique Plasticity, Its Privacy And Freedom.

Inaugurals Conventionally Start With A History Lesson And Finish With A Prayer.

In Rural Areas The Majority Of The Victims Of Violent Crime Know Their Assailants (indeed, Are Probably Married To Them); In Cities, The Killer And The Mugger Come Out Of The Anonymous Dark, Their Faces Unrecognized, Their Motives Obscure.

In Novels And Autobiographies, The First Positive Move That The Immigrant Makes Towards Assimilation Is To Buy Himself A Suit Of City Clothes.