The city of romance and art is also, like most big cities, a place of grit and grime. The American writer and long-time Paris resident David Downie tells us where to look if we’re to understand the people and past of this most alluring city.

Christine L. Corton describes how Londoners loved and hated the fog that defined their city for over 200 years. Fog bought confusion, suicide and death; but also anonymity, mystery and beauty. Here, she picks the best five books on the pea-souper

Katrina was not a natural disaster but an engineering one, says the journalist and author. He chooses the best books on Hurricane Katrina, ranging from a novel to a geographical biography of New Orleans. 

The social historian argues London is an intrinsically addictive city. He charts its history through its dependencies on chocolate, tobacco, coffee, and tea.

The historian and biographer of London Peter Ackroyd picks five books that shine a light on parts of this vast, complex and confusing city where, he says, pathos and pantomime meet.

As the Olympics open, David Runciman looks back at the two previous times that the Games have been staged in London and finds that the thrift of today looks modest compared with austerities of the past

Inner-city crime is a matter of deprivation not race. It comes from a street culture that respects extreme violence, says Gavin Knight, an author who spent two years among British gangs and the police units covering them

The author of Groove Interrupted transports us to the world of Fats Domino and Professor Longhair, and tells us how (and where) to sample the city’s unique music culture

The writer dubbed “LA’s number one muckraker” peels away the phoney baloney to tell us about power, pollution and pulp fiction in the City of Angels.

Half of the world’s population live in cities, and more are moving in. Urbanist Leo Hollis explains how city living makes us smarter and more creative, why slums are set to grow, and what the future of the city holds.

Vegas tugs on the imagination like few other places. A sin city journalist tells us about innocent beginnings, muckraking and mobsters, and how Vegas has changed through boom and bust

The author of the wonderful Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin, tells us about San Francisco’s spirit of place, and the books that best capture the city’s sense of possibility and noirish feel.

‘The authors of these five books are people who came to New York for freedom – not so they could get rich, but so they could be free to pursue their interests and live their lives the way they wanted.’ New Yorker par excellence Fran Lebowitz recommends the writers who best capture her immutably mutable city.

A city of hidden depths and morbid fascination, by turns respectable and savage. Iain Sinclair picks five novels that capture the spirit and rich history of London.

Harvard economist Edward Glaeser chooses the best books on the economics of cities, from Chicago’s life story to how urban transport shaped New York.

The architect, writer, lecturer, and director of Kilburn Nightingale Architects says architecture should not be just about buildings, but about everything else in our environment

The architectural teacher and writer explores the origins and consequences of urban partition along ethnic lines and selects five books that focus on divided cities such as Jerusalem, Belfast and Beirut