Jan Morris

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Jan Morris ( CBE ; * 2. October 1926 in Clevedon , Somerset , England as James Humphrey Morris ) is a Welsh journalist, author of travel books, historian and writer.

Life

Jan Morris attended Lancing College in West Sussex . At the end of World War II , Morris was drafted into the British Army and stationed in the US and British-occupied Free Territory of Trieste in 1945 . After another assignment in Palestine , Morris left the army service in 1949 with the rank of lieutenant and studied English at Christ Church College , Oxford . As a reporter for the Times , Morris accompanied the British expedition to Mount Everest in 1953 . Her news of the successful first ascent by Hillary and Tenzing went to the London newspaper as encrypted text over several stages, and the message was printed on the morning of June 2, 1953, the day of Elizabeth II's coronation . In 1956, Morris reported on the Suez War . The proceeds from a study of the history of Venice allowed Morris to live as a writer from 1960.

Morris has published a variety of travel books and is the author of a three-volume history of the British Empire. Her novel Last Letters from Hav was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1985 .

Morris holds honorary doctorates from the University of Wales and the University of Glamorgan and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature . In 1999 she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) .

Private

Since 1965, Morris sought gender reassignment, which was carried out in Morocco in 1972 . In 1974 she published the autobiographical Conundrum, in which she processed her gender reassignment.

She married Elizabeth Tuckniss in 1949, with whom they have five children. After the two were divorced in the meantime, they entered into a civil partnership in 2008 . Morris lives with her partner in Wales near her father's hometown.

Works (selection)

  • My house in Wales. Frederking and Thaler, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-89405-486-7 .
  • Hong Kong. Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1991, ISBN 3-404-60306-0 .
  • Last letters from Hav.Random House, New York 1985, ISBN 0-394-53262-7 .
  • Great power Venice. Piper, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-492-02631-1 .
  • Conundrum: Report on my gender reassignment. Piper, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-492-02112-3 .
  • New York, where all ships land. List, Munich 1971, ISBN 3-471-78133-1 .
  • Persia. Atlantis, Zurich 1970.
  • The Pax Britannica Trilogy.
    • Heaven's Command: An Imperial Progress. Faber and Faber, London 1968.
    • Pax Britannica: The Climax of Empire. Harcourt, Brace & World, New York 1968.
    • Farewell the Trumpets: An Imperial Retreat. Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, New York 1978, ISBN 0-15-130404-1 .
  • Amsterdam to Tokyo. Piper, Munich 1966.
  • Spain. Droemer / Knaur, Munich 1966.
  • 3 times Venice. Piper, Munich 1961.
  • Venice . Faber & Faber Ltd., London 1960.
    • German by Hermann Stiehl, R.Piper & Co., Munich 1960?.
  • Whose is the Orient ?. South German Verl., Munich 1958.
  • Coronation Everest. Faber, London 1958.
  • Sultan in Oman. South German Verl., Munich 1957.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jan Morris: All-time high , Financial Times , May 4, 2013, p. 8
  2. ^ Alan Rusbridger : Courage under fire , The Guardian , July 10, 2006
  3. ↑ a b c Andy McSmith: Love story: Jan Morris - Divorce, the death of a child and a sex change ... but still together , The Independent , June 4, 2008
personal data
SURNAME Morris, Jan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Morris, James Humphry (maiden name); Morris, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Welsh author
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Clevedon , Somerset , England