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Ariel: A Literary Life of Jan Morris
Jan Morris is one of the great British writers of the post-war era. Soldier, journalist, writer about places (rather than 'travel writer'), elegist of the British Empire, novelist, she has fashioned a distinctive prose style that is elegant, fastidious, supple, and sometimes gloriously gaudy. For many readers she is best known for her candid memoir Conundrum, which described the gender reassignment operation she underwent in 1972. But as Ariel demonstrates, this is just one of the many remarkable facts about her life.
As James Morris she was the journalist who brought back the story of the conquest of Everest in 1953 and who discovered incontrovertible evidence of British involvement in the Suez Crisis of 1956. She has been described by Rebecca West as the finest prose stylist of her time, and her essays span the entire urban world. Her many books include a classic on Venice, a 1,600 page history of the British Empire, and a homage to what is perhaps her favourite city, Trieste. Her writings on Wales represent the most thorough literary investigation of that mysterious land.
Derek Johns was Jan Morris's literary agent for twenty years. Ariel is not a conventional biography, but rather an appreciation of the work and life of someone who besides being a delightful writer is known to many people as a generous, affectionate, witty and irreverent friend. It is published to coincide with her 90th birthday.
As James Morris she was the journalist who brought back the story of the conquest of Everest in 1953 and who discovered incontrovertible evidence of British involvement in the Suez Crisis of 1956. She has been described by Rebecca West as the finest prose stylist of her time, and her essays span the entire urban world. Her many books include a classic on Venice, a 1,600 page history of the British Empire, and a homage to what is perhaps her favourite city, Trieste. Her writings on Wales represent the most thorough literary investigation of that mysterious land.
Derek Johns was Jan Morris's literary agent for twenty years. Ariel is not a conventional biography, but rather an appreciation of the work and life of someone who besides being a delightful writer is known to many people as a generous, affectionate, witty and irreverent friend. It is published to coincide with her 90th birthday.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published October 6, 2016
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About the author
Derek Johns
8 books5 followersDEREK JOHNS has been a bookseller, editor and publisher and now works as a literary agent in London.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 1, 2016
I loved this gem of a book. James Morris covered the ascent of Everest with Edmund Hillary and Tenzing, broke the news of Britain's involvement in the Suez Canal crisis and the use of napalm during this battle (long before Vietnam) and traipsed across the desert with a sheikh, a-la Laurence of Arabia style. More than that he wrote numerous books (over forty) on cities and countries with his most well-known being the Pax Britannica an extraordinary history of his beloved Empire. James became Jan in the 1970s with a transgender reassignment. Conundrum addressed this period of his life and because of the sensationalism of the event became her best known work. Derek Johns gives us tantalizing glimpses and extracts from a well-traveled writerly life at a time when it was relatively safe to travel and the world was an oyster for those willing to step outside their door and search for a pearl. Jan Morris did that and more. Published to coincide with Jan's 90th birthday.
December 24, 2018
Not sure quite how to describe this book - which is in some ways rather like a book by Jan Morris herself. It looks at her literary career thematically, it's not a biography and it's not really a full critical work either. Particularly liked the chapter on Wales, which I suspect doesn't usually get much of a look-in with people thinking of her writing life. This book might send you back to some of her works, of which the most important, although not everything, are still in print.
February 27, 2019
I thoroughly enjoyed this literary overview of Jan Morris' life. I first came across her when my mother gave me the book Conundrum (pub. 1974, describing James Morris' journey to become Jan, ultimately through having a sex change). Her many books of travel writing are well known, and her description of Trieste, "... a middle-sized, essentially middle-aged Italian seaport, ethnically ambivalent, historically confused, only intermittently prosperous, tucked away at the top right-hand corner of the Adriatic Sea, and so lacking the customary characteristics of Italy that in 1999 some 70 percent of Italians, so a poll claimed to discover, did not know it was in Italy at all." (!) makes me want to go there:
"For me Trieste is an allegory of limbo, in the secular sense of an indefinable hiatus. My acquaintance with the city spans the whole of my adult life, but like my life it still gives me a waiting feeling, as if something big but unspecified is always about to happen... but its subliminal hints - of the visceral, the surreal, the lonely, the hypochondriac, the self-centered and the affectionate - roughly approximate my own reactions."
"For me Trieste is an allegory of limbo, in the secular sense of an indefinable hiatus. My acquaintance with the city spans the whole of my adult life, but like my life it still gives me a waiting feeling, as if something big but unspecified is always about to happen... but its subliminal hints - of the visceral, the surreal, the lonely, the hypochondriac, the self-centered and the affectionate - roughly approximate my own reactions."
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August 17, 2021What a life that gives chapters like 'Oxonian, traveller, soldier'. Most of all this book quotes Morris's books, so giving a taste for more of them. 'The great pleasure Jan's writing gives its readers stems from the pleasure she has derived from the experiences that inform the writing, which in turn derives from an openness to those experience in the first place.'
He places Morris' life in the context of 'the lost order of the English - essentially a patrician society, stable, tolerant, amateur, confident enough to embrace an infinite variety withing a rigid framework' and a 'perpetual flight from the status quo'.
And Morris 'reminds us that the seas, lakes and rivers have no parking meters still, that the fish are masters of their own migrations, and that somewhere beyond our credit-card conformities, somewhere out there at the end of the pier, grand, green or fragrant things are always happening'.
He places Morris' life in the context of 'the lost order of the English - essentially a patrician society, stable, tolerant, amateur, confident enough to embrace an infinite variety withing a rigid framework' and a 'perpetual flight from the status quo'.
And Morris 'reminds us that the seas, lakes and rivers have no parking meters still, that the fish are masters of their own migrations, and that somewhere beyond our credit-card conformities, somewhere out there at the end of the pier, grand, green or fragrant things are always happening'.
April 22, 2021
A short book which, as the subtitle states, is a biography of the author, Jan Morris, from talking about her books.
I have read some of Morris’ more than 50 books, and have significant further books by her on my pile of to be read, so I found this a very engaging book, with many well chosen quotes from Morris’ works. My one criticism would be that the book should not have ended with the chapter on Morris’ sex change in the 1970’s, but rather celebrate those late books, Hav and Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere which, to me, sum up Morris’ ability to conjure a place, whether real or imagined.
The book tells us nothing that is not apparent from Morris’ books, but it is rather an indulgent treat to have it served up to the reader in such a lovely fashion, with a number of line drawings by Morris to accompany the text.
I have read some of Morris’ more than 50 books, and have significant further books by her on my pile of to be read, so I found this a very engaging book, with many well chosen quotes from Morris’ works. My one criticism would be that the book should not have ended with the chapter on Morris’ sex change in the 1970’s, but rather celebrate those late books, Hav and Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere which, to me, sum up Morris’ ability to conjure a place, whether real or imagined.
The book tells us nothing that is not apparent from Morris’ books, but it is rather an indulgent treat to have it served up to the reader in such a lovely fashion, with a number of line drawings by Morris to accompany the text.
November 7, 2018
I needed reminding that this was a 'literary life' halfway through this charming little book, when I found it somewhat disappointing not to be reading more personal stuff. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this beautifully written tribute to the very beautiful writings of Morris - it's almost like having Cliff/York notes on her style, philosophy and language. And her illustrations are gorgeous.
January 1, 2021
An enjoyable introduction to Morris's work which encouraged me to read Trieste alongside. I was intrigued that Johns uses 'he' when describing episodes in Morris's pre-transition life, something I wouldn't do with my trans friends, but as Johns was a friend and Morris read the MS, I have to assume she was happy with it.
July 13, 2018
She wrote books, more than fifty,
On well near every city.
On well near every city.
December 7, 2021
Excellent. Clear, concise and helpful.
March 5, 2017
Jan Morris is a British national treasure. This book is little, much too little given Jan's long and eventful life but a good starting place. Not really a biography, more a sort of cliff notes version of some of her life's events and best writing. She deserves better by which I mean more - more depth, more details, more pages. This is just an entree when we need a full meal!
April 3, 2017
Great introduction to the work of an amazing writer.
A bit of an odd little book as it's neither biography or anthology but a bit of a hybrid creature.
It's made me want to go and read all of Jan Morris's work...which would likely be daunting as she's written 50+ books. :o)
A bit of an odd little book as it's neither biography or anthology but a bit of a hybrid creature.
It's made me want to go and read all of Jan Morris's work...which would likely be daunting as she's written 50+ books. :o)
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October 28, 2017I have been wanting to read more by Jan Morris for some time, then spotted this informal literary biography in the local library and was quickly hooked. beautifully presented, illustrated with delicate line drawings by Morris, it sets her 50 books in the context of her eventful life and is an excellent introduction to her work. Currently researching travel writers as background for a character in one of my own novels, I found this book engrossing and intriguing, copying many quotes into my commonplace book on travel writing for future reference. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Morris and in travel writing in general.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews