01 May 2026

Jan Morris- A Life by Sara Wheeler: 18th June

Thursday, 18th June 2026 in Keats Community Library at 7.30pm

Jan Morris:  Sara Wheeler discusses this iconic journalist and traveller based on her brand new capitvating biography.

"She was the twentieth century. Who wouldn’t want to write her biography?"

When Jan Morris joined the 1953 Everest expedition and was first to get news of the ascent back to London, she became the most famous journalist in the world.

So began a glittering career covering the Eichmann trial, interviewing Che Guevara and scooping the story of Suez collusion. Morris transitioned in the early seventies and documented the experience in Conundrum. She was a pioneer and her books, including Venice and the Pax Britannica trilogy, have inspired readers across the globe.

Here, renowned travel writer and biographer Sara Wheeler uncovers the complexity of this twentieth-century icon to reveal a mosaic of contradictions. Morris’s work conjured the spirit of place, yet her late masterpiece Trieste celebrates ‘the meaning of nowhere’. She was a Welsh nationalist who wasn’t Welsh; a preacher of kindness with a cruel side. This is a portrait of an astonishing life, and a scintillating story of longing, travel and never reaching home.

‘Wonderful.’ Paul Theroux
‘Brilliant.’ Simon Jenkins
‘Superb.’ Colin Thubron
‘Breathtakingly good.’ Michael Palin

‘Brave, beautifully written and shrewdly researched . . . this is a riveting read by a writer at the top of her game.’ The Times
‘Seldom have I read such an enthralling biography.’ Literary Review
‘An exemplary Life, about a strange English writer of rare gifts and peculiar greatness.’ Independent
‘As adventurous and intelligent as its roving subject.’ Telegraph
‘Superb.’ Spectator

Tickets are £12 from the Library (020 7431 1266) and on line from Wegottickets

Click the Link HERE or use the QR code below 

With thanks to our sponsor