imperial court, remote from external influences, produced durable curiosities like the siesta, the paseo and a joyously hectic nightlife. A city where decorative display and lunching are often rated above industry and money-making, Madrid's exuberant style nonetheless flourishes in the modern world.Elizabeth Nash explores the chaotic jumble of a city built by in-comers eager to serve - or use - a court by turns austere and ostentatious. In squares, parks, streets and monuments old and new, she tracks down aristocrats and artisans, servants and chancers who bred a unique urban culture combining deference and insolence, conformity and flair. The city of artists and writers: Velazquez and Goya, realism, the erotic and the macabre; Cervantes, Cela and Hemingway, the traditions of satire, the picaresque hero and the novel of war. The city of power politics: The heart of the Spanish Empire; the scars of civil war and dictatorship; democracy and the movida of hedonistic excess and liberation, celebrated by Oscar-winning film-maker Pedro Almodovar. The city of passions: The intellectual debates of cafi society; fiestas sacred and profane; the cult of bullfighting and the capital's love affair with soccer.

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