Jan Morris

Jan Morris (then James) first visited Trieste as a soldier at the end of the Second World War. Since then, the city has come to represent her own life, with all its hopes, disillusionments, loves and memories. Here, her thoughts on a host of subjects - ships, cities, cats, sex, nationalism, Jewishness, civility and kindness - are inspired by the presence of Trieste, and recorded in or between the lines of this book.?Evoking the whole of its modern history, from its explosive growth to wealth and fame under the Habsburgs, through the years of Fascist rule to the miserable years of the Cold War, when rivalries among the great powers prevented its creation as a free city under United Nations auspices, Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere is neither a history nor a travel book; like the place, it is one of a kind. Jan Morriss collection of travel writing and reportage spans over five decades and includes such titles as Venice, Coronation Everest, Hong Kong, Spain, Manhattan 45,A Writers World and the Pax Britannica Trilogy.Hav, her novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

A New York Review Books Original Hav is like no place on earth. Rumored to be the site of Troy, captured during the crusades and recaptured by Saladin, visited by Tolstoy, Hitler, Grace Kelly, and Princess Diana, this Mediterranean city-state is home to several architectural marvels and an annual rooftop race that is a feat of athleticism and insanity. As Jan Morris guides us through the corridors and quarters of Hav, we hear the mingling of Italian, Russian, and Arabic in its markets, delight in its famous snow raspberries, and meet the denizens of its casinos and cafes. When Morris published Last Letters from Hav in 1985, it was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Here it is joined by Hav of the Myrmidons, a sequel that brings the story up-to-date. Twenty-first-century Hav is nearly unrecognizable. Sanitized and monetized, it is ruled by a group of fanatics who have rewritten its history to reflect their own blinkered view of the past. Morriss only novel is dazzlingly sui-generis, part erudite travel memoir, part speculative fiction, part cautionary political tale. It transports the reader to an extraordinary place that never was, but could well be. Show more Show less

Fresh from her successful scoop reporting the first ascent of Everest in 1953, Jan Morris spent a year journeying across the United States, by car, train, ship and aeroplane. In herwords a "period piece", Coast to Coast describes an American identity markedly different from today. In her brilliant prose, Morris records with exuberence and curiosity a time of innocence in the US - when television was in its infancy, the Big Mac had not been invented and the popular song of the day was "Chattanooga Choo-Choo".

Jan Morris tells the epic story of the rise of the British Empire, from the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 to her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. In this celebrated masterwork she vividly evokes every aspect of the great adventure, ranging from ships and botanical gardens to hill stations and sugar plantations, as she traces the impact of empire on places as diverse as Sierra Leone and Fiji, Zululand and the Canadian prairies. The Pax Britannica Trilogy also includes Pax Britannica: The Climax of an Empire and Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat. Together, these three works of history trace the dramatic rise and fall of the British Empire, from the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 to the death of Winston Churchill in 1965. Jan Morris is also world-renowned for her collection of travel writing and reportage, spanning over five decades and including such titles as Venice, Coronation Everest, Hong Kong, Spain,A Writers World and most recently, Contact!How many professional historians can write books that give so much pleasure? This is a book planned by an architect, fitted together by a craftsman, and polished by a cabinet-maker.Sunday Times

Spain is one of the absolutes. Nothing is more compelling than the drama, at once dark and dazzling, of that theatre over the hills - the vast splendour of the Spanish landscape, the intensity of Spains pride and misery, the adventurous glory of a history that set its seal upon half the world . . .Passionate, evocative and beautifully written, Spain is a companion to the country: its people, its history - and its character. First published in 1964 and no less compelling today, Jan Morriss classic work is back in print, bringing Spain, its glory and its tragedy, vividly to life. Jan Morriss collection of travel writing and reportage spans over five decades and includes such titles as Venice, Coronation Everest, Hong Kong, Spain, Manhattan 45, A Writers World and the Pax Britannica Trilogy.Hav, her novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.The most evocative book ever written about Spain.Independent

I have never before in my life kept a diary of my thoughts, and here at the start of my ninth decade, having for the moment nothing much else to write, I am having a go at it. Good luck to me.So begins this extraordinary book, a collection of diary pieces that Jan Morris wrote for the Financial Times over the course of 2017.A former soldier and journalist, and one of the great chroniclers of the world for over half a century, she writes here in her characteristically intimate voice - funny, perceptive, wise, touching, wicked, scabrous, and above all, kind - about her thoughts on the world, and her own place in it as she turns ninety. From cats to cars, travel to home, music to writing, its a cornucopia of delights from a unique literary figure.

In a wonderfully evocative collection of her travel writing and reportage from over five decades, Jan Morris - a constant traveller - has produced a unique portrait of the twentieth century. Ranging from New York to Venice, Sydney to Berlin, and the Middle East to South Africa, Jan Morris was a witness to such seminal moments as the Eichmann trial, the first ascent of Everest, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the handover of Hong Kong.Offering a tremendously perceptive and highly personal view of the world, she is as much concerned with conveying the feel of these moments as the events themselves. And, as ever, she displays her unique and inimitable literary style, at once funny, wise and sad. Jan Morriss collection of travel writing and reportage spans over five decades and includes such titles as Venice, Coronation Everest, Hong Kong, Spain, Manhattan 45, A Writers World and the Pax Britannica Trilogy.Hav, her novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.A glorious compendium of adventure and wisdom Pico Iyer

Exquisite, powerful . . . I can think of no better way of commemorating British explorations culminating triumph. Simon Winchester?Coronation Everest offers a breathtakingly intimate evocation of the most famous of all mountaineering exploits - and of perhaps the last great old-fashioned Fleet Street scoop.It was Morris who broke the news that a British-led expedition had conquered Mount Everest the day before the Queens coronation in 1953 . . . Allied to physical courage in getting down the mountain and a dogged resourcefulness in getting the news home, Morris scooped the world and was launched on one of the most remarkable literary careers in the second half of the twentieth century.GuardianJan Morriss collection of travel writing and reportage spans over five decades and includes such titles as Venice, Coronation Everest, Hong Kong, Spain, Manhattan 45, A Writers World and the Pax Britannica Trilogy.Hav, her novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Europe has been widely acclaimed as among the finest achievements of one of our greatest living writers (The Times). A personal appreciation, fuelled by five decades of journeying, this is Jan Morris at her best - at once magisterial and particular, whimsical and profound. It is a matchless portrait of a continent.

Necrophilia is not one of my failings, but I do like graveyards and memorial stones and such...Following the publication In My Minds Eye, her acclaimed first volume of diaries, a Radio 4 Book of the Week in 2018, Jan Morris continued to write her daily musings. From her home in the North West of Wales, the author of classics such as Venice and Trieste cast her eye over modern life in all its stupidity and glory. From her daily thousand paces to the ongoing troubles of Brexit, from her enduring love for America to the wonders of the natural world, and from the vagaries and ailments of old age to the beauty of youth, she once again displays her determined belief in embracing life and creativity - all kindness and marmalade.A book of great solace.Financial TimesMorris writing is just as elegant and erudite, and her mind just as supple, playful, curious, rigorous, humorous and surprising as ever.New York TimesAfter a lifetime of travelling the world, what a magnificent concluding sentiment.Daily Mail

First published in 1964, this is a classic work of travel literature which brings Spain, its glory and its tragedy, vividly to life. Passionate, evocative and beautifully Notes.

En 1953, todo el mundo estaba a la espera de oír si la expedición de sir JohnHunt triunfaría en su intento de ser la primera en llegar a la cima del monteEverest, a ocho mil ochocientos metros sobre el nivel del mar. Jan Morris,periodista de e Times, estuvo con aquella historica expedicion desde elprincipio hasta el nal. Cuando Edmund Hillary y Tenzing Norgay alcanzaronpor n la cima, Morris se enfrento a un nuevo reto: hacer llegar la exclusiva aLondres a tiempo para coincidir con la coronacion de la reina Isabel II.Publicado por primera vez en Inglaterra en 1958, La coronacion del Everest es lacronica de un evento historico, una evocacion intima e impactante de la masfamosa de todas las hazañas del montañismo y de la que quiza fuese la ultimagran primicia del periodismo de la vieja escuela.Fue Morris quien dio la noticia al mundo de que una expedicion liderada porlos britanicos habia conquistado el Everest el dia antes de la coronacion de lareina en 1953. Dotada de mucho valor y de un ingenio tenaz, Morris dio almundo la exclusiva y se vio lanzada asi a una de las carreras literarias masnotables de la segunda mitad del siglo XX.The GuardianJan Morris (1926) es periodista, escritora e historiadora inglesa, cuando no estaviajando vive en Gales entre las montañas y el mar. Antes de cambiar de sexo en1...

Edición en castellano.

As one of Britains best and most loved travel writers, Jan Morris has led an extraordinary life. Perhaps her most remarkable work is this grippingly honest account of her ten-year transition from man to woman - its pains and joys, its frustrations and discoveries. On first publication in 1974, the book generated enormous interest and curiosity around the world, and was subsequently chosen by The Times as one of the 100 Key Books of Our Time. Including a new introduction, this re-issue marks a return to that particular journey.Certainly the best first-hand account ever written by a traveller across the boundaries of sex.Daily Mail

In Contact! Jan turns her brilliantly observant eye to the human contacts she made, across the globe and though the decades. As a series of vignettes, some only a few lines long, she records hundreds of brief glimpses and fleeting encounters, celebrating the people who helped spark her view of the world and mould her responses. A vast range of human experience is here: most are anonymous, everyday encounters - children playing, a homeless man in Manhattan, a lascivious taxi-driver - but she also remembers celebrated figures, from Yves San Laurent to King Hussein of Jordan, President Truman to Peter OToole. Contact! is a must for any fans of Jans writing. Her great sense of amusement, shrewd eye for detail and huge enthusiasm for her contacts makes these episodes incredibly enjoyable - and often profound.

The second instalment of the Pax Britannica Trilogy by Jan Morris, recreates the British Empire at its dazzling climax - the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, celebrated as a festival of imperial strength, unity, and splendour. This classic work of history portrays a nation at the very height of its vigour and self-satisfaction, imposing on the rest of the world its traditions and tastes, its idealists and rascals. The Pax Britannica Trilogy also includes Heavens Command: An Imperial Progress and Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat. Together these three works of history trace the dramatic rise and fall of the British Empire, from the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 to the death of Winston Churchill in 1965. Jan Morris is world-renowned for her collection of travel writing and reportage, spanning over five decades and including such titles as Venice, Coronation Everest, Hong Kong, Spain,A Writers World and most recently, Contact!In scholarship and humour this portrait of the British Empire before its decline and fall might, without undue optimism, be placed upon the same shelf as Edward Gibbons history. As a survey of its subject, I doubt that Pax Britannica can ever, in this generation be surpassed.Financial Times

Renowned and much-loved travel writer Jan Morris turns her eye to Sydney: not the best of the cities the British Empire created ... but the most hyperbolic, the youngest at heart, the shiniest.Sydney takes us on the citys journey from penal colony to world-class metropolis, as lively and charming as the city it describes. With characteristic exuberance and sparkling prose, Jan Morris guides us through the history, people and geography of a fascinating and colourful city. Jan Morriss collection of travel writing and reportage spans over five decades and includes such titles as Venice, Hong Kong, Spain, Manhattan 45,A Writers World and the Pax Britannica Trilogy. Hav, her novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Sydney should be flattered. A great portrait painter has chosen it for her recent subject . . . Few writers - a handful of novelists apart - have got so far under the citys skin as Morris . . . Few Sydneysiders could match her knowledge of their citys history and its anecdotesThe TimesThe writing is, at times, like surfing: sentences rise like vast waves above which she rides, never overbalancing into gush . . . Jan Morris convincingly explains modern Sydney through its historyObserver

The great travel writer Jan Morris was born James Morris. James Morris distinguished himself in the British military, became a successful and physically daring reporter, climbed mountains, crossed deserts, and established a reputation as a historian of the British empire. He was happily married, with several children. To all appearances, he was not only a man, but a man''s man. Except that appearances, as James Morris had known from early childhood, can be deeply misleading. James Morris had known all his conscious life that at heart he was a woman. Conundrum, one of the earliest books to discuss transsexuality with honesty and without prurience, tells the story of James Morris''s hidden life and how he decided to bring it into the open, as he resolved first on a hormone treatment and, second, on risky experimental surgery that would turn him into the woman that he truly was.

«Trefan Morys es el nombre de mi casa en Gales y, a decir verdad, creo que lo más interesante es el hecho de que está en Gales.»Con sencilla elegancia, Jan Morris reflexiona sobre su hogar en Gales,

Peerless.' Daily Telegraph 'Sprinkled with magic.' Observer 'Full of mischief, romance, fun and kindness.' The Times Soldier, journalist, historian, author of forty books, Jan Morris led an extraordinary life, witnessing such seminal moments as the first ascent of Everest, the Suez Canal Crisis, the Eichmann Trial, the Cuban Revolution and so much more. From reflections on identity and nations to the importance of good marmalade, Allegorizings is the final despatch from one of the greatest chroniclers of the twentieth century. 'A precious few [writers] report with wisdom, kindness and intelligence from the end to which we shall all come - travel of a different kind. This is such a book.' Sarah Moss, New York Times 'She was one of the most extraordinary people I ever had the luc