Jan Morris: Life from Both Sides

An illustrated talk by the writer, journalist and broadcaster Paul Clements

When Jan Morris died in 2020, she was considered one of Britain’s best-loved writers. The author of Venice, Pax Britannica, Conundrum, and more than 50 other books, her work was known for its observational genius, lyricism and humour, and earned her a passionate readership around the world. In the 1950s and early ’60s, Morris was an internationally feted foreign correspondent for The Times and the Manchester Guardian reporting on some of the 20th century’s defining moments such as the first ascent of Everest in 1953, the Suez Crisis (1956) and the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961. However, public success masked a private dilemma that was only resolved when she transitioned genders in the 1970s becoming renowned as a transgender pioneer.

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 30 years and edited a collection of tributes to her on her 80th birthday. He is the recipient of a visiting journalist’s fellowship at Oxford University where he wrote the first critical study of Morris’s work published by the University of Wales Press. His biography of Jan Morris was published by Scribe in 2022. He lives with his wife and son in Belfast.