Featuring a fantastic line up of contributors, The City A-Z introduces students to a refreshingly new way of thinking about and understanding cities and urban life. Specially comissioned short entries capture moments of the city, constantly surprising the reader with entries ranging from poetry to prose, from paintings to a photo-essay, and from rigorous noisy analysis to quiet stories of city life. An "ideas" map, similar to the London Underground map, links all the different themes providing a route through this unique text. Includes contributions from: Ash Amin , Anette Baldauf , David Bell, Walter Benjamin, Alistair Bonnett, Iain Borden, Stephen Cairns, Iain Chambers, Steve Graham, Dolores Hayden, Steve Hinchcliffe, Mary King, Deborah Levy, Eugene McLoughlin, Harvey Molotch, Miles Ogborn, Steve Pile, Roy Porter, Jane Rendell, Saskia Sassen, David Sibley, Sharon Zukin

this work is recommended for urban studies collections at all levels as a stimulating introduction to the flavor of the current British urban scene.
-P.O. Muller, University of Miami

Steve Pile is Senior Lecturer in social sciences at the Open University. Nigel Thrift is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Bristol.