from The Times Oct 25th 2004
Sarah Anderson sold her bookshop and set off round the world. This was her first dispatch from Philadelphia
I’m leaving behind a grey London day but hope that I won’t find Philadelphia as S.J. Perelman described it: ” … a metropolis sometimes known as the City of Brotherly Love, but more accurately as the City of Bleak November Afternoons”. Somewhat more tempting is Charles Dickens’ description in his American Notes: “It is a handsome city, but distractingly regular. After walking about it for an hour or two, I felt that I would have given the world for a crooked street”.