Book description
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 late twentieth century. Ranging
from New York to Venice, 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 Morris was born in 1926 of a Welsh father and an English mother,
and when she is not travelling she lives with her partner Elizabeth
Morris in the top left-hand corner of Wales, between the mountains and
the sea. Her books include Coronation Everest, Venice, The Pax
Britannica Trilogy (Heaven's Command, Pax Britannica, and Farewell the
Trumpets), and Conundrum. She is also the author of six books about
cities and countries, two autobiographical books, several volumes of
collected travel essays and the unclassifiable Trieste and the Meaning
of Nowhere. A Writer's World, a collection of her travel writing and
reportage from over five decades, was published in 2003. Hav, her novel,
was published in a new and expanded form in 2006.
