Jan Morris is DEAD to ME!

This person was a thankfully plain, sensible and ignorable person. Quite unlike the hysterical loonies with which we have to contend nowdays.

Their memoir was all rather ho-hum. Their travel journalism was all rather ho-hum and redundant —it could have been done better as a TV show.

Tsunami of shitposts referring to “him” in 5, 4, 3...

How gallant of you, R2!

The world needs more chivalrous men like you.

She looks like Barbara Bush and the Chicken Lady from Kids in the Hall had a baby

Trans is beautiful!

I loved her as Madge in the Palmolive commercials.

Jan Morris wrote my favorite and in my opinion the best general survey of the British Empire, the Pax Britannia series. They are wonderful, engaging and very complete books. She wrote them as James Morris.

She transitioned before it was a thing, as the kids would say these days. He was one of the then-tiny fraction of people who identified so strongly with female living that he became a she (obviously not biologically, but socially). She never soap-boxed about it, she didn’t use it as an attention getting ploy.

She never said shit like “not all women have ovaries so women’s groups should not talk about reproductive health issues.”

She is (was) what trans was before the woke movement provided the rocket fuel to transform it into something truly awful, like the little mogwai before getting wet and being fed after midnight.

[quote] She never soap-boxed about it. . .

Well, Morris 'soap-boxed' about it when they published a 176 page book about it all in 1974.

I don't know how many copies were sold but it currently retails for $16.90 each.

Morris was second to do it --after Christine Jorgensen.

Looks dead-off like a man

R8, you might want to put down the moon cup and take to google to acquaint yourself with the meaning of soap boxing.

In Conundrum, which you invoke without having read it, Morris explains the reasons she transitioned. The way she explains it is exactly the opposite of sospboxing — yelling your one truth at the public.

Instead she said:

[quote] I never did think that my own conundrum was a matter either of science or of social convention. I thought it was a matter of the spirit, a kind of divine allegory, and that explanations of it were not very important anyway. What was important was the liberty of us all to live as we wished to live, to love however we wanted to love, and to know ourselves, however peculiar, disconcerting or unclassifiable, at one with the gods and angels.

R11, Thank you for your excellent post. Your considered reproof of R8's post is a fine example of how to correct another's grievous error without resorting to sophomoric name-calling, an all-too-frequent occurrence on DL. One hopes that the exquisite quote you chose from [italic]Conundrum[/italic] will help introduce Jan Morris to those who have never had the pleasure of reading the work of this acclaimed journalist, travel writer, and historian, as well as a towering pioneer in gender identity.

I once edited a piece she wrote for me -- she was delightful to work with: completely professional, smart, and eager to be edited well.

[quote] …she was delightful to work with…

Was she womanly?

I don’t imagine there’s too much wailing or gnashing of teeth in Sydney.

or Indianapolis.

Surely the genre of Travel Books must be dead by now that we have the Internet.

Why would people want to pay good money to read a stranger's sketchy and inaccurate first impressions of a strange place?

[Quote] Morris was second to do it --after Christine Jorgensen.

Millions of people all over the world did this before either of them. But I know what you mean. Add Dr Renee Richards too.

In any case, I'm a big admirer of her Pax Brittanica and her sensible approach to her sex change.

R12's reply is easily one of the most insufferable things I've read on this hellhole of a website.

r17 sounds limited.

[quote]Conundrum will help introduce Jan Morris to those who have never had the pleasure of reading the worand her sensible approach to her sex change

Sex change? Uh, no. Morris was, is and will forever remain a male. "He" became a "she" by replicating the worst socially-dictated stereotypes of female. That's not a "sex change", that's insulting, demeaning parody. And pandering to Morris by using female pronouns is truly adding injury to insult.

I saw her at the Edinburgh Book Festival some years ago. I’ve read many of her books, and am a big fan. She was utterly charming, and took questions from the audience with good humour and grace. She had the audience eating out of her hand.

"He" became a "she" by replicating the worst socially-dictated stereotypes of female, R21?

I was unaware that somewhat resembling Michael Palin in a Python spoof was among the worst socially-dictated stereotypes of female.

Jan wore sensible shoes, twin-set and pearls, below-knee-length skirts, cardigans and tweed jackets when appropriate.

She eschewed ostentatious, expensive jewellery.

Are the trans activists expressing their condolences at the passing of one of the most respected trans women or wasn't Jan woke enough for them?

r11, hmm, living how they wished with no regard whatsoever for the women they endanger and mock. He was an autogynephilic fetishist who forced the rest of the world to non-consensually engage in his kink. That's sexual assault. These guys are the worst male supremacist misogynists in the world and they're entirely homophobic.

Such a good question r25

She was a handsome woman ✌🏻 RIP

Fuck off, Matthew @ r26.

Ah r29, is the blinkered screaming fanatic at r26 our crazed Anscher troll? It reads more to me like a perma-enraged michfest refugee.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

R28 Well, they shouldn't wear mini-skirts. Viz, the fourth picture in the link.

Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere is a haunting book I still think about.

R26 is a deranged lesbian.

[quote] 'Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere' is a haunting book

Others have described it as 'non-factual', 'empire-loving', 'reactionary' and 'outrageously un-PC", as it discusses 'the crudity of the black, brown or yellow masses'.

I imagine the poignant inscription on the dual headstone of Morris and wife Elizabeth after over 70 years together should trump almost any DL nastiness: 'Here are two friends, at the end of one life.'

[quote] . . . poignant inscription . . . should trump almost any DL nastiness . . .

I enjoy DL for the most part, and I would miss it if it were not here, but it seems undeniable to me that there are more than a few of its posters whose sensitivities have apparently been so dulled by life that they are immune to poignance.

As for me, R36, I agree that there is no nastiness that can't be trumped by the tenderness inherent in the inscription that you quoted, but I will be surprised if attempts are not made.

Have you read it R35?

[quote] …somewhat resembling Michael Palin in a Python spoof…

Yes, you're right, R23

~ Bill Bryson is another person made rich (net worth $10 million) by this outdated redundant genre called travel books.

They're littered with inaccuracies and subjective first impressions which require an expensive replacement edition to correct.

Insightful takes on LA, NYC and DC

Why didn't he think to transform his teeth when he did the rest

R41 Dame Peggy Ashcroft advised that mature Englishwoman should display a demure, modest smile.

There's no need to flash the choppers like those Americans!