Spirit of place is a difficult essence to distil. Many excellent travel writers fail – for them the journey, the sensations of movement are paramount. The foreign-residence book is a distinct sub-category in the travel genre: being there, soaking up the atmosphere, takes precedence over physical movement from place to place. Lawrence Durrell  on Cyprus in Bitter Lemons, William Dalrymple on Delhi in City of Djinns are both good examples. Rory MacLean’s long engagement with Berlin since the 1970s, when he worked there in film with David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich, has produced another superb ex­ample. In 23 separate chapters, he ranges freely over the histories, personalities and paradoxes of this troubled and often tragic city which he has made his second home. &ldquo