'Hard boiled travel writing elegantly banged out on an old typewriter...'

In Cities Of The Dead, writer Siôn Smith, embraces what remains of the spirit of Jack Kerouac as he wanders through eight landmark cities in search of coffee, culture and adventure with a minimalist set of luggage aka: what he can fit in his pockets.

From Florence to New York, Paris to Warsaw, he digs up the road less travelled and finds – amongst many other curios – a mermaid who has been assaulted more times than she deserves, a rock star with a stolen head and a corporate accountant on a desperate quest to forget his wife. The result is a collection of lucid essays of a world distracted by the noise of its own making where few take the time to see what is actually happening beneath their nose. 

Written during various jaunts around the globe, Cities of the Dead is hard boiled travel writing for anybody who never wanted to read a guide book in the first place.

‘It doesn’t take me long to get back to my hotel. It’s a relief to leave the commerce behind to be frank. I wanted to love Milan and I don’t. It must be the Kanye West of European cities - loved by millions but nobody is quite sure why…’