Description:
A spirited and truly compelling literary biography of the immortal travel writer, journalist and twentieth-century trans pioneer, Jan Morris.
When Jan Morris joined the 1953 Everest expedition and was first to get news of the ascent back to the young Queen Elizabeth in London, she became the most famous journalist in the world overnight. So began a glittering career that saw her cover the Eichmann trial, interview Che Guevara and scoop the story of Suez collusion.
Morris transitioned in the early seventies, and documented the experience in Conundrum, still considered a classic of trans literature today. She was a trailblazer adored around the globe and her books, including Venice and the Pax Britannica trilogy, have inspired hundreds of thousands of readers.
In these pages, celebrated travel writer and biographer Sara Wheeler uncovers the complexity of this twentieth-century icon to reveal a mosaic of contradictions. Morris conjured the spirit of place in her work, yet her late masterpiece Trieste celebrates "the meaning of nowhere; she was a Welsh nationalist who wasn't Welsh; and a preacher of kindness with a cruel side.
Drawing on unprecedented access to Morris's papers as well as interviews with family, friends and colleagues, Wheeler assembles a captivating portrait of her astonishing life--a story of longing, traveling and never reaching home.
Brief description:
Sara Wheeler is an award-winning and bestselling travel writer and biographer, and a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio; like Jan Morris, she has spent half her working life on the road. Her eleven books include Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica and Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a contributing editor of the Literary Review. She lives in London.
Review Quotes:
"Wheeler's biography is vivid, comprehensive." ⎯ The New York Times
"A compassionate and comprehensive biography . . . . Candid and clearsighted." ⎯ Wall Street Journal
"Excellent . . . . The accomplished British travel writer Sara Wheeler may be the perfect biographer for Morris; Wheeler has a polished discernment for both physical and emotional landscapes." ⎯ Boston Globe
"Brave, beautifully written and shrewdly researched . . . . (Wheeler) is as fierce and flinty as her subject and writes with Morrisian verve and acuity." - Sunday Times
"A sensitive, empathetic, and measured biography." - Kirkus Reviews, (starred review)
"A deep and questioning look at an author who could seem at home everywhere, yet remain a stranger in her own household." ⎯ Air Mail
"Well researched and beautifully written, this is a superb biography that puts Morris into the context of her time and makes a solid case for the enduring significance of her work." - Spectator
"Wheeler beautifully captures the excitement, the paradoxes, and the utter lightness of being Jan Morris." ⎯ Booklist (starred review)
"[An] engrossing, sensitive and fair-minded biography . . . Morris could not have hoped for a better chronicler than Wheeler . . . Wheeler understands Morris's roving life and the determination to show readers places they may never see for themselves⎯and allow them to feel them, to know them." ⎯ The Observer
"As adventurous and intelligent as its roving subject . . . superb." - Telegraph (5 stars)
"A thorough and competent biography." ⎯ Publishers Weekly
"Sensitive and empathetic." ⎯ Library Journal
"It is impossible to imagine a better guide to Morris's tricky character and nomadic career than Sara Wheeler. Herself the author of fine travel books, she writes beautifully and her literary judgements are astute. She preserves just the right blend of sympathetic engagement and critical detachment. And she does not pretend to omniscience, leaving some things up in the air, including the mystery of Morris's motivation and whether the transition ultimately provided the fulfilment she craved. Seldom have I read such an enthralling biography." - Literary Review
'This is an exemplary Life, about a strange English writer of rare gifts and peculiar greatness." - Independent
"This penetrating biography is a fabulous accomplishment." - Oldie
"A superb achievement. Wheeler's research is so deep and extensive, and her writing so compelling, that it is hard to imagine this biography will ever be superseded." -- Colin Thubron
"Wonderful--witty, amazingly documented, and in its fluency and verve, worthy of its subject." -- Paul Theroux
"Jan Morris is a fascinatingly elusive subject. She constantly tries to wriggle out of her biographer's grasp, but Sara Wheeler pursues her through every twist and turn and the result is a breathtakingly good read. Coherent, comprehensive and compulsive." -- Michael Palin
"A masterly biography." -- Simon Jenkins
"I was ensnared from the first page. The variety and force of Morris's questing intellect and adventurous life renders the question of whether legs are clad in skirts or trousers a side issue. A profound study of a fascinating human being." - Sue Prideaux