Robert Liddell produced during his lifetime a distinguished list of novels and critical works. With the recent reissue of his Oxford novel, The Last Enchantments, and the autobiographical Stepsons and The Aunts, Liddell's reputation has risen to place him in the front rank of twentieth-century English writers. Unreal City sits easily amongst Liddell's best novels. It describes the Alexandrian poet Cavafy at the end of his life. The story is told through the eyes of Charles, a timid and withdrawn Englishman who finds himself in Caesarea (Alexandria) during the last year of the Second World War, and whose friendships with two remarkable people open his eyes to the mysteries of the Unreal City.