Jan Morris

In the 1950s and 60s Morris was one of the most successful young British journalists, famous especially for an account of the conquest of Mount Everest. Identifying as a woman by 1972, Morris was already making a name as a travel writer, celebrating particularly the life of cities, a commentator delineating the political cross-currents of the Middle East, and a historian, especially of the British Empire. During the later phases of her career she consolidated her reputation for travel writing and also made her mark as a memoirist and experimented with fiction.