Robin Hanbury-Tenison

Jan Morris’s last book is a vade mecum to treasure

Charming vignettes, conceived as allegories, are an eye-opener to the beauty and interest of all the places she loved best

Splash out on a water taxi in Venice, advises Jan Morris, rather than risk being pickpocketed on the vaporetto. [Getty Images] 
issue 18 December 2021

Jan Morris, in all her incarnations, was always able to evoke a place and a moment like no other. As James Morris, the only journalist to cover the first successful ascent of Everest in 1953, he described Edmund Hillary returning from the summit as

huge and cheerful, his movement not so much graceful as unshakably assured, his energy almost demonic… It was a moment so thrilling, so vibrant, that hot tears sprang to the eyes of most of us.

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