IN MY MIND’S EYE
A Thought Diary
Riffing on cats and Brexit, the Royals and the annoyances of aging, the nonagenarian Jan Morris delights with her wickedly hilarious first-ever diary collection.
Celebrated as the “greatest descriptive writer of her time” (Rebecca West), Jan Morris has been dazzling readers since she burst on the scene with her on-the-spot reportage of the first ascent of Everest in 1953. Now, the beloved ninety-two-year-old, author of classics such as Venice and Trieste, embarks on an entirely new literary enterprise—a collection of daily diaries, penned over the course of a single year. Ranging widely from the idyllic confines of her North Wales home,
Riffing on cats and Brexit, the Royals and the annoyances of aging, the nonagenarian Jan Morris delights with her wickedly hilarious first-ever diary collection.
Celebrated as the “greatest descriptive writer of her time” (Rebecca West), Jan Morris has been dazzling readers since she burst on the scene with her on-the-spot reportage of the first ascent of Everest in 1953. Now, the beloved ninety-two-year-old, author of classics such as Venice and Trieste, embarks on an entirely new literary enterprise—a collection of daily diaries, penned over the course of a single year. Ranging widely from the idyllic confines of her North Wales home, Morris offers diverse sallies on her preferred form of exercises (walking briskly), her frustration at not recognizing a certain melody humming in her head (Beethoven’s Pathétique, incidentally), her nostalgia for small-town America, as well as intimate glimpses into her home life.
With insightful quips on world issues, including Britain’s “special relationship” with the United States and the #MeToo movement, In My Mind’s Eye will charm old and new Jan Morris fans alike.
- Liveright
- Hardcover
- January 2019
- 208 Pages
- 9781631495366
Buy the Book
$24.95
About Jan Morris
Born in 1926, Jan Morris is the author of such classics as the Pax Britannica trilogy and The World, among many others. She lives in Wales.
Praise
“Morris is one of Britain’s greatest living writers.” — The Times (UK)
“It is remarkable to be writing a book at 91, yet what grips is not so much her thoughts about the world (towards which she turns and turns away) but her sense of the rhythms of domestic life.” — The Guardian
“A splendidly quirky confection that mixes the trivial with the serious, like life…. Morris has a gift for picking out what seems only in retrospect to be obvious. Like all good diaries, this one benefits from the strengths of the form: the possibility of being (or sounding) spontaneous and impressionistic.” — Literary Review (UK)
“In committing her ruminations to 320 entertaining pages, Morris creates a captivating image of a delightfully dotty elderly lady…. After closing the book, I felt bereft of Morris’s company and her chummy, conversational prose style.” — Susan Flockhart, Glasgow Sunday Herald