Sara Wheeler JAN MORRIS : A LIFE

Jan Morris : A Life

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.

‘A breathtakingly good read. Coherent, comprehensive and compulsive.’ MICHAEL PALIN‘

A superb achievement . . . It is hard to imagine this biography will ever be superseded.’ COLIN THUBRON

‘Wonderful – witty . . . worthy of its subject.’ PAUL THEROUX

‘A masterly biography.’ SIMON JENKINS

Sara Wheeler

Sara Wheeler is a highly acclaimed British writer, who is perhaps best known for her accounts of polar regions and her international best-seller Terra Incognita. She has also written about the US, Russia and other countries, and has most recently published Glowing Still, a memoir of her life on the road. The authorised biography of Jan Morris is her latest book.