In this first guide to Tangier’s extraordinary cultural history , former BBC North Africa correspondent Richard Hamilton explores the city to find out what has inspired so many international writers, artists and musicians. In Tangier, the Moroccan novelist Mohamed Choukri wrote, Ôeverything is surreal and everything is possible.Õ In this intimate portrait, Hamilton explores hotels, cafŽs, alleyways and the city’s darkest secrets. Delving down through complex historical layers, he finds a frontier town that is comic, confounding and haunted by the ghosts of its past. Samuel Pepys thought God should destroy Tangier and St Francis of Assisi called it a city of Ômadness and delusions.Õ Yet, throughout the centuries, it has also been a crucible of creativity. It was a turning point in Henri MatisseÕs artistic journey and had a profound impact on the founder of the Rolling Stones, Brian Jones