In this evocation of twelve world cities which have been either intertwined with his life, or otherwise aroused his particular interest, Roy Jenkins follows up Churchill with a book of a very different shape, short and semi-autobiographical, but also full of the wit, erudition and carefully chosen illustrations which make Churchill such a success.

The cities are each described with a mixture of architectural interest, topographical insight, and personal anecdote. Jenkins has three British cities: Cardiff, which was the metropolis of his Monmouthshire childhood, Birmingham which he represented in Parliament for 27 years, and Glasgow, which he did not know well until he won a famous bye-election there in 1982, but which then aroused in him an enthusiasm far transcending politics.

There are four North European cities: Paris, of which his memories go back to 1931; Brussels, where he lived for four years as President of the European Commission; Bonn, not exactly a metropolis but the modest capital of the very successful West German polity for 40 years; and Berlin, surveyed from its Wilhelmine splendour, through its 1945 degradation to its reunification and architectural resurgence of the 1990s.

Then there are two South European essays on cities which both have a special and strong flavour - Naples and Barcelona. From Lord Jenkins's over a hundred visits to North America there emerge highly personal recollections of New York and a more objective view of the architectural sparkle of Chicago. Dublin, so near to home and yet so distant, makes up the dozen.