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You can create your own walking tour of New York (via Jack Kerouac) with Bill Morgan’s classic book, ahead of the new film in 2012. The circle of friends known as the Beats came to NYC for women, poetry, drugs, men and map-free travel in the 1950’s. It was On the Road (1957) that made Kerouac famous, though. The new film sees British actor Sam Riley as Sal Paradise, Kerouac’s alter-ego, and Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty.

Twilight’s Kristen Stewart and Kirsten Dunst both feature too. So plug in some Billie Holiday or Bob Dylan and start walking. In between the espresso coffee joints in Greenwich Village, you’ll have plenty of time to plan the rest of the tour.

St Patrick’s Cathedral, uptown, is where Kerouac often went for spirtual solace. It’s also where the great and the good in New York are buried.

From there, you may want to find two guys, a beaten-up car, the necessary Levi jeans, plaid shirts and T-shirts and go from coast to coast. But this book (Bill Morgan is the Beat expert to beat) is a good starting point, before the film takes over…