When I finally arrived in London to stay, I felt twice life size. To be an immigrant is to play one’s first and key role in the drama of city life. You are part of a mythology. In Soft City Jonathan Raban arrives in 1970s London and attempts to plot his course through the urban labyrinth. How is it, he asks, that the city – noisy, jostling, overwhelming – leaves us at once so energized and so fragile? In the city we can live deliberately, we can invent and renew ourselves, we can create privacy, and yet we are also afraid of loneliness: we cling to the structures of everyday life in the hope of warding off the chaos. First published in 1974, Soft City is a classic of urban literature. As the world’s cities become increasingly crowded, this extraordinary book – part reportage, part intimate biography – is more relevant than ever. Funny and vivid, this is a prescient exploration of metropolitan existence and our place amongst the masses. `A psychological handbook for urban survival’ Sunday Telegraph `A tour de force’ Jan Morris, Spectator