ALLEGORIZINGS

JAN MORRIS

Faber, 207pp, £14.99

‘All the mysteries of creation, the Milky Way and the armadillo, art and mathematics, even love and hate, even the loss of a child — perhaps the whole damned caboodle is itself no more than some kind of majestically impenetrable allegory,’ said Jan Morris in her book, published posthumously, and so concludes her long life of writing, experience, adventure and reflection.

Allegorizings is a collection of short essays, which Alex Clarke in the Guardian found beguiling. They are ‘filled with whimsy’ and ‘ jeu

d’esprit’ and Morris proves that ‘being fanciful is not the enemy of seriousness’. Morris delves into weighty topics that range from the difference between nations and nation states, patriotism and nationalism, as well as decidedly light musings on matters such as sneezing, marmalade and hot-water bottles.

Lynn Barber in the Telegraph, was delighted by Morris’s irreverent attitudes. ‘The peerless travel writer’s posthumous final book is a rallying cry in favour of “callowness and fizz”.’ Barber loved her ‘sharp, throwaway judgments – James Joyce’s Ulysses, is “unnecessarily obscure” and Princess Diana was “reassuringly common”.’

‘A joyful cascade of essays,’ said Libby Purves in the Times. ‘Outrageous but kindly, mischievous and fanciful but mercilessly descriptive, appreciative and mocking, in physical and mental travels she takes mishaps and glories with glee. She can hymn luxurious pleasure, but revels in scruffiness.’ With no cautionary note to sound, Purves found this last book, a ‘glorious envoi for this marvellous writer and sweetest of human beings’.