This book is not a dictionary, though it tells you all you need know about everything from authenticity to zips. It's not an autobiography, though it does offer a revealing and highly personal inside view of contemporary culture.

It's an essential tool kit for understanding the world around us. It's about what makes a Warhol a genuine fake; the creation of national identities; the mania to collect. It's also about the city as seen from the rearview mirror of Grand Theft Auto V, digital ornament and why we value imperfection. It's about drinking a bruisingly dry martini in Adolf Loo's American bar in Vienna and about Hitchcock's film sets. It's about the modern world of fashion, technology, design and art.

Born in London, Deyan Sudjic studied architecture in Edinburgh, edited Domus in Milan and was the director of the Venice architecture biennale and a curator in Glasgow, Istanbul and Copenhagen.

The author of The Language of Things and The Edifice Complex, Deyan Sudjic is now director of the Design Museum, London.