When the writer Nik Cohn was 10 years old, he visited a bookshop and found a copy of Alan Lomax's book on musician Jelly Roll Morton. It had photographs of Jelly Roll's hometown, New Orleans, "the city of dreams." Nik fell for Jelly Roll Morton's vision of the city "hook line and sinker".

Back home in Northern Ireland, New Orleans became a place of magical possibilities. It would be another decade before Nik finally visited New Orleans but it has become a place he returns to and re-discovers constantly.

Nik muses on what makes New Orleans so different and so special. The beauty, the music and the food are all part of it, but living under sea level also has an impact on anyone who spends proper time in the city.

Producer: Rachel Hooper

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in January 2013. Show less