New York to an Englishman:

“Crisp perfect New York day. In the sharply defined shadow and strong sunlight these huge buildings look magnificent - so defiantly non-European. We don’t need your cathedrals and castles, your moated manors and Georgian terraces, they seem to say - we have something entirely different, we speak in a different language, we have our own version of beauty. Take it, or leave it. Comparisons are meaningless and redundant.”

I put this up on my old blog (which I’ve retired this week) a few days after I moved to New York, and it’s so good it deserves a place on this new blog. It sums up the impression the city gives you as an English person perfectly.

It’s from William Boyd’s “Any Human Heart”. I couldn’t recommend it more highly.