Welsh travel writer, journalist and novelist Jan Morris has passed away aged 94. Her death was announced by her son Twm, who said the author was on her ‘greatest journey’.
Morris is best known for her evocative travel writing, such as her book 1960 Venice, which has remained one of the most popular books on the Italian city. She has also written extensively as a journalist and non-fiction author, including the 1974 book Conundrum, which detailed her process of gender transition, and was one of the first autobiographies to do so.
Morris also turned her talents to fiction – her 1985 novel Last Letters from Hav was a fiction novel written as travel literature, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year. She has said in an interview that there is one final novel of hers ‘at the publisher’s, waiting for me to kick the bucket.’
Online tributes have poured in for the well-loved author, many celebrating her pioneering role as a proud trans woman in the realms of journalism and publishing.
Jan Morris’s journalism and travel writing was superb. Her guide to Venice is a joy that will never be bettered. A pioneering trans woman, her public visibility and account of her transition, Conundrum, let others like me know they were not alone. A great life is over. RIP Jan x
— Katherine O’Donnell (@kathy__odonnell) November 20, 2020
Morris is survived by her longtime partner Elizabeth Tuckniss, whom she married in 1949, and engaged in a civil partnership with in 2008.
