Paul Clements - Jan Morris: life from both sides

JAN MORRIS

A journalist, writer, and broadcaster, Paul Clements is the author of five travel books and a biography of Richard Hayward, adapted for BBC television. He knew Jan Morris personally for thirty years, edited a collection of tributes to her on her 80th birthday, and spent four months at Oxford University where he wrote the first critical study of her work, published by University of Wales Press (1998). A former BBC assistant editor, he is a recipient of the Reuter Journalists Fellowship Programme, a Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and a member of the Royal Society of Literature. He lives with his wife and son in Belfast.

Scribe Publications
2 John St, Clerkenwell, London, WC1N 2ES, United Kingdom
1820 Edward St, Brunswick, Victoria 3056, Australia
3754 Pleasant Ave, Suite 100, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55409, USA

Published by Scribe 2022

Copyright Paul Clements 2022

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publishers of this book.

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

978 1 911617 44 0 (UK edition)
978 1 922585 00 4 (Australian edition)
978 1 950354 92 4 (US edition)
978 1 922586 37 7 (ebook)

Catalogue records for this book are available from the National Library of Australia and the British Library.

scribepublications.co.uk
scribepublications.com.au
scribepublications.com

There is properly no history; only biography.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON, ESSAYS

Contents

PROLOGUE:

CHAPTER 1:

CHAPTER 2:

CHAPTER 3:

CHAPTER 4:

CHAPTER 5:

CHAPTER 6:

CHAPTER 7:

CHAPTER 8:

CHAPTER 9:

CHAPTER 10:

CHAPTER 11:

CHAPTER 12:

CHAPTER 13:

CHAPTER 14:

CHAPTER 15:

CHAPTER 16:

CHAPTER 17:

CHAPTER 18:

CHAPTER 19:

CHAPTER 20:

Authors Note

Jan Morris originally lived and wrote as James Morris, undertaking a gender transition that became public knowledge in the early 70s. Her chosen pronouns were she and her and this choice is honoured throughout the book.

The exceptions to this are cases where historic sources are cited; occasionally, these use pronouns he and him. Such quotes have been reproduced in the interest of depicting Morriss historic context accurately, including the challenges she faced as a transgender pioneer.

Attitudes towards gender identity are changing and the vocabulary used to discuss it continues to evolve. Recognising the impact that some of the material quoted or reported in this book may have had then and may have now, I have made efforts to use sensitive and appropriate language elsewhere, including when viewing through a modern lens the period in which Morris lived. I hope readers will forgive any shortcomings.

The images used in this book have been chosen to reflect a rounded picture of Jan Morriss life. They cover her early years, the period in the Army, and her adventurous reportage for newspapers, as well as the decades spent travelling the world and her later years living in Wales.

Chronology

All publication dates refer to the British editions of Morriss work.

1926: Born 2 October, Clevedon, Somerset, England, the third of three children

193034: Attended kindergarten in Clevedon

193540: Chorister, Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford

194143: Lancing College, Sussex (based in Shropshire during World War II); contributed features, reviews, and poetry to the school magazine

1943: Trainee journalist, Western Daily Press , Bristol; met and interviewed James Cagney, Irving Berlin, and Cary Grant

1944: Signed up for the Home Guard in Bristol while waiting to join the army

1945: Trainee cadet at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

194547: British Army: joined 2nd Hussars, then 9th Queens Royal Lancers, serving in Venice, Trieste, Egypt, and Palestine as intelligence officer after World War II; edited satirical magazine Lighter Lancer

194849: Journalist, Arab News Agency, Cairo

1949: Married Elizabeth Tuckniss

Lived in Marylebone, London

194951: Undergraduate, Christ Church, Oxford; editor of student magazine Cherwell

Lived in Appleton, Berkshire (later Oxfordshire)

Attained Bachelor of Arts degree

1951: Editorial staff, The Times , trainee sub-editor on foreign desk

1952: Birth of first son, Mark

Times stand-in as foreign correspondent in Suez Canal Zone; covered the Black Saturday riots and the rise of revolutionary nationalism

Acting foreign editor of The Times

1953: Accredited Times correspondent on Mount Everest expedition, achieving a scoop for the newspaper using coded message

Birth of second son, Henry

Began book reviewing for the Times Literary Supplement

1954: Harkness Trust Commonwealth Fund Fellow, United States, studying international relations at the University of Chicago; toured America covering 70,000 miles by car, train, ship, and plane

195556: Middle East correspondent for The Times

Crossed south-east Arabia with the Sultan of Oman

First book, Coast to Coast , won Caf Royal Literature Prize, and was runner-up for the John Llewellyn Rhys Literature Prize

Lived on a houseboat in Cairo; family later lived in the French Alps

Wrote The Market of Seleukia

195662: The Manchester Guardian part-time foreign correspondent; reported on Suez Crisis, Algerian War of Independence, and apartheid in South Africa

Family moved to Ickham, Kent, in 1957

Wrote eight books during this period, including Coronation Everest

1959: Television films made for BBC Panorama and journalism for ITN

Freelance writing for magazines and BBC Home Service

Lived for six months in Venice

1960: Baby daughter, Virginia, died in hospital, aged one month

Venice published

1961: US George Polk Memorial Award for Journalism

Master of Arts conferred by Oxford University

Moved to Waterperry, Oxfordshire

Birth of third son, Tom (later Twm)

Royal Society of Literature Award for Venice

Elected Fellow of the RSL

Covered Adolf Eichmann trial for Manchester Guardian

1963: Toured Spain for six months for travel book

1964: Birth of daughter, Susan (known as Suki)

The Presence of Spain published

1965: Acquired Plas Trefan, Caernarfonshire

Moved to Llanystumdwy, near Cricieth

Oxford published

196672: Travelled widely for British Empire trilogy

Began preparing physically and psychologically for gender confirmation surgery while living intermittently in Jericho, Oxford

1968: Pax Britannica: the climax of an empire (Vol. 1) published

1972: Gender confirmation surgery in Casablanca at age of forty-six

Nominally divorced Elizabeth

Moved to live in Bath

1973: Heavens Command: an imperial progress (Vol. 2) published

1974: Publication of Conundrum , landmark memoir of gender transition

197480: Contributor to Rolling Stone magazine

Moved to live in Trefan Morys, Llanystumdwy

1977: Elected Visiting Senior Associate Member, St Antonys College, Oxford

1978: Farewell the Trumpets: an imperial retreat (Vol. 3) published

1984: The Matter of Wales: epic views of a small country published

1985: Last Letters from Hav shortlisted for the Booker Prize

1986: Visiting writer-in-residence, San Francisco Examiner