If the city was dreaming," he told me, "then the city is asleep. And I do not fear cities sleeping, stretched out unconscious around their rivers and estuaries, like cats in the moonlight. Sleeping cities are tame and harmless things.""What I fear," he said, "is that one day the cities will waken. That one day the cities will rise.

Note for Americans and other aliens: Milton Keynes is a new city approximately halfway between London and Birmingham. It was built to be modern, efficient, healthy, and, all in all, a pleasant place to live. Many Britons find this amusing.

London grew into something huge and contradictory. It was a good place, and a fine city, but there is a price to be paid for all good places, and a price that all good places have to pay.

So, if a city has a personality, maybe it also has a soul. Maybe it dreams.

Work. Home. The pub. Meeting girls. Living in the city. Life. Is that all there is?