Jan Morris : A Life by Sara Wheeler

Publishes 9 April 
 
A captivating authorised biography of the legendary writer Jan Morris.

She was the twentieth century. Who wouldn’t want to write her biography?
 
When Jan Morris joined the 1953 Everest expedition and was first to get news of the ascent back to London, she became the most famous journalist in the world. So began a glittering career covering the Eichmann trial, interviewing Che Guevara and scooping the story of Suez collusion. Morris transitioned in the early seventies and documented the experience in Conundrum. She was a pioneer and her books, including Venice and the Pax Britannica trilogy, have inspired readers across the globe.
 
Here, renowned travel writer and biographer Sara Wheeler uncovers the complexity of this twentieth-century icon to reveal a mosaic of contradictions. Morris’s work conjured the spirit of place, yet her late masterpiece Trieste celebrates ‘the meaning of nowhere’; she was a Welsh nationalist who wasn’t Welsh; a preacher of kindness with a cruel side. This is a portrait of an astonishing life, and a scintillating story of longing, travel and never reaching home.
 
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'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is so deep and extensive, and her writing so compelling, that it is hard to imagine this biography will ever be superseded.'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

'Jan Morris is a fascinatingly elusive subject. She constantly tries to wriggle out of her biographers 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

'Wonderful - witty, amazingly documented, and in its fluency and verve, worthy of its subject.' - Paul Theroux

'A masterly biography.' - Simon Jenkins

'I was ensnared from the first page. A profound study of a fascinating human being.' - Sue Prideaux