Paris

Whether you're a backpacker from Idaho on your first visit, or a cultural swallow on an annual migration to Paris, this pocket book will intoxicate and inspire, goad and guide. Unlike the grand city of public architecture and political achievement, the poetic tradition of Paris is personal, irreverent, sexy and invigorating. This collection delights in the company of such swashbuckling gallows-fodder as Francois Villon, and chuckles at the audacity of Rimbaud and Baudelaire, the perpetual rebels. What it proves is that in Paris, creativity is always political - whether it's Rimbaud reacting to the events of 1871, the Surrealists to the horrors of First World War trenches, or the generation of '68 to the excesses of Algeria and the complicities of Vichy. It's also fitting inspiration for taking a day off from monuments and making your own magic revolution from your bed.