大象传媒

By any measure, the story of author Jan Morris would make an extraordinary tale – a simple biographical listing of achievements, events, and dramas presents enough material for several lifetimes.

There's the brief career as a solider, witnessing the dying embers of the second world war.

There’s the high profile career in journalism; famously scaling 23,000 Himalayan feet as the Times correspondent covering the .

It was, in fact, Morris who broke the story, getting the coded message heralding Hillary and Tenzing's success back to Britain in time to coincide neatly with the Queen’s coronation.

There’s also the small matter of authoring over 40 books – including a celebrated history of Venice that has never been out of print.

Although famed as a travel writer, Morris has also written as well as a respected series of factual books charting the history of the British Empire.

Then there’s the brave decision in 1972 to undergo perilous sex re-assignment surgery that changed James Morris, journalist, husband, and father of five into Jan Morris, female author and reluctant curiosity – a landmark moment written about candidly in her 1974 book, .

Legally compelled to divorce from wife, Elizabeth, the couple quietly continued to live together for over 50 years before celebrating their union with a civil partnership in 2008.

The pioneering bravery and sympathetic intelligence that Morris brought to her books has served as inspiration for many other authors. In 大象传媒 Two’s Artsnight, , another celebrated traveller and adventurer, pays homage to Morris and attributes to her book, , his love of the city.

'Jan Morris’ Venice is one of the most influential books of my life,' he says.

'Her description of the city transcended any conventional travel writing I’ve come across. Morris’ heart and soul was in the book. It was like a love affair.

'When I subsequently went to Venice I knew what she meant. Her book started my own love affair with the city, which has lasted all my life. And as a writer she taught me the importance of curiosity and observation.'

For Palin, Morris was far more than a writer of travel books. ‘She says she’s not a travel writer. I think, partly, because she sees the travel writing genre as a bit overloaded,’ he says.

‘She’s kind of a non-fiction novelist. She creates an image and a feeling of a place that stays in your mind.’

Now aged 90 and allowed the indulgence of nostalgia, it is Morris herself who sums her own incredible story.

'I've enjoyed my life very much, and I admire it. I think it has been a very good and interesting life and I've made a whole it,' she says.

'I've done all of my books to make one big autobiography. My life has been one whole self-centred exercise in self-satisfaction!"

is broadcast on 大象传媒 Two, Saturday, 08 October 2016, 21:00 and will be available on iPlayer for 30 days after transmission.