The Story of Jim and Jan (opens in new tab)

Welsh historian and travel writer Jan Morris in 1988. By Pico Iyer Few writers could captivate readers, in person and on the page, so effortlessly as Jan (born James) Morris. She was blessed with an unstinting energy and buoyancy that had her dashing off postcards far and wide, answering e-mails with improvised poetry, and cold-calling younger writers to offer encouragement. Old friends might have been startled to see a handsome foreign correspondent transformed by gender-reassignment surgery...