Postcard from New York

"I got mugged the last time I was here. The guy only wanted 25 cents for a cup of coffee, but he had very bad breath." says Clive James as he adds New York to his occasional series of city snapshots that has included Shanghai, Sydney and, most recently, Cairo. Haunted by his previous experience, he takes a quick lesson in self-defence from a policewoman before hitting the mean streets of Manhattan. Armed with tips such as "don't go out alone at night", the anxious Aussie globetrotter braves the city's infamous subway system, gets the lowdown on its lowlife as well as being smeared with seaweed, attacked by killer poets and ambushed by the names (among them, Ivana Trump ) who help to give the Big Apple its bite.