Jan Morris
Distributed for University of Wales Press
Jan Morris, travel-writer, critic, journalist, historian, biographer and novelist, has been a celebrated figure on the literary scene for almost fifty years. Her ability to capture the spirit of a place, which has been described as ‘the verbal equivalent of a landscape painting’, is well illustrated in such works as Venice and The Presence of Spain. Her triumphant evocation of the social atmosphere of the British Empire has made her trilogy, Pax Britannica, a major work of literary history. Her books on Wales communicate her love for the country, a feeling which she has described as her supreme pleasure.
Paul Clements's book is the first major study of Jan Morris and provides a fascinating account of both her incomparable descriptive writing and her extraordinary life.
“Clements has a light, fast style, and does a good job of balancing the parts . . .” –New Welsh Review
“. . . the life and substantial literary output of Jan Morris deserve more. In Paul Clements's lively book - not a biography, but the first major study of this renowned author - they are given comprehensive coverage, and she emerges as a passionate, driven character, ever open to new experience, and literally full of the joys of life.” –Irish Times
“Clements has done a scholarly job of producing a catalogue of Morris’s works and has succeeded in giving readers, old and new, a flavour of her voice and concerns. This includes his attention to what he brilliantly refers to as her characteristic ‘word-smithery’. He also answers the inevitable readers’ question, ‘from where does she derive this wealth of information?’: ‘she peruses telephone directories for information on local names, copies down graffiti and inscriptions from war memorials and gravestones . . .’ (p. 86). Finally, a journalist himself, Clements is at his finest when tracing the influence of Morris’s own journalistic background on her travel writing.” –www.gwales.com
“. . . the first major study of Jan Morris, a fascinating examination of her writing and her extraordinary life.” –Irish News
“. . . extremely well-researched . . .” –Planet
Literature and Literary Criticism: British and Irish Literature
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