Scotland: The Place of Visions

by Jan Morris, Paul Wakefield

In The Place of Visions, the renowned travel writer Jan Morris has collaborated once again with the great landscape photographer Paul Wakefield to give us a brilliant guided tour of Scotland, form the rich glens and rivers of the south, through the famous towns and cities of the centre, to the hard mountains of the north and the many islands and seas all around.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published July 13, 1986

About the author

Jan Morris was a British historian, author and travel writer. Morris was educated at Lancing College, West Sussex, and Christ Church, Oxford, but is Welsh by heritage and adoption. Before 1970 Morris published under her assigned birth name, "James ", and is known particularly for the Pax Britannica trilogy, a history of the British Empire, and for portraits of cities, notably Oxford, Venice, Trieste, Hong Kong, and New York City, and also wrote about Wales, Spanish history, and culture.

In 1949 Jan Morris married Elizabeth Tuckniss, the daughter of a tea planter. Morris and Tuckniss had five children together, including the poet and musician Twm Morys. One of their children died in infancy. As Morris documented in her memoir Conundrum, she began taking oestrogens to feminise her body in 1964. In 1972, she had sex reassignment surgery in Morocco. Sex reassignment surgeon Georges Burou did the surgery, since doctors in Britain refused to allow the procedure unless Morris and Tuckniss divorced, something Morris was not prepared to do at the time. They divorced later, but remained together and later got a civil union. On May, 14th, 2008, Morris and Tuckniss remarried each other. Morris lived mostly in Wales, where her parents were from.

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book about a country very dear to my heart. It is not a conventional travel book. It is more than that in that it seeks, I think, to somehow evoke the totality of the county. Now that is a big call.

There is some wonderful material here. The writing provides the most lucid descriptions of specific places: fishing villages, remote islands, cities, ancient castles, chunks of landscape. You know for sure the author has been there, seen it, felt it. There is great empathy for the people she has spoken with, as she has sought to expose the essence of their existence, their history, their ambitions.

The photography ranges from vast, empty panoramas to islands floating on seas that stretch forever to the fine detail of rock structure and lichen and Scots pine tree bark, to portraits that will etch themselves on ones's mind as surely as the Mona Lisa. It is the unique Scotland.

And yet, I don't say this comfortably, for I greatly admire Jan Morris' work, there is a very important factor missing from both text and the photography, in my opinion, and that is the special light which so illuminates the country at times. That ethereal glow on the Highland landscape, the shining lochs and the crystal seas is a vital counterpoint to the characterful brooding darkness. It is a necessary part of the whole.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jan Morris is one of the foremost historians of her generation and I was curious about this book as she was the author of the text accompanying truly luminous and spectacular photos. The text did not disappoint- beautifully written and appropriately evocative of the area described. She describes Scottish history and heritage in fewer words than some of the books i’ve been reading but with clear knowledge of, understanding about and appreciation of the history and people of Scotland.

[James Junke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful read, very observant, insightful, as Morris wanders about. Fantastic photos bring to life the elegiac prose. Likely best read with a single malt at hand.

[Jbondandrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pictures in this book were absolutely amazing. A very different book than the one Jan Morris did for Wales but still good.