Jan Morris

by Paul Clements

Jan Morris, travel-writer, critic, journalist, historian, biographer and novelist, has been a celebrated figure on the literary scene for almost fifty years. Her triumphant evocation of the social atmosphere of the British Empire has made her trilogy, Pax Britannica, a major work of literary history. Her books on Wales communicate her love for the country, a feeling which she has described as her supreme pleasure.
Paul Clements's book is the first major study of Jan Morris and provides a fascinating account of both her descriptive writing and her extraordinary life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

111 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[V L DUBOURDIEU · Rating 5 out of 5]

As ever, Jan Morris is frank about her experience of life. Which doesn’t mean to say she tells you everything. This book is about simple observations, day-by-day: she is 'feeling her age'. And she is quietly disturbed about the way the world is changing. Given a broader view than most, that's a comfort. Perhaps it’s also something to share back even if only in a review? I'm encouraged to read all her books again, cover to cover, as an inspiration to keep 'living well,' despite the uncertainty of enforced isolation; even with my doctor saying, "Oh you won't get the virus; you're too healthy." Somehow, one feels this about Jan Morris, too, who really is on a par with Queen Elizabeth II. Somehow, she always has been. Then as James, a journalist for The Times who climbed, too, instead of hanging around base camp, he was first to report on Coronation Day that the summit of Mount Everest had been reached conquered by (Sir) Edmund Hilary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay. Some have reached it since but many have failed. But Jan Morris does not fail to interest. My reading of this book is that we all need to persevere; each of us has one personal summit left to conquer. Do it in style.