Author plans posthumous comeback

Morris was a military intelligence officer before turning to writing

Author Jan Morris has come out of retirement to write one more book - but it will only see the light of day after her death.

Allegorizings, a book of essays, "will not be published until after I kick the bucket", the 81-year-old told Reuters.

"But I hope it won't be published for some time," added the celebrated travel writer, whose last full work was published six years ago.

Her publishers agreed to release the new book without reading it, she said.

"They took it sight unseen, except they didn't like the title, and they still don't like the title. Tough."

Morris said her UK publishers Faber & Faber and US counterparts WW Norton had accepted that it would stay locked away until after her death.

About 30 years ago I had our gravestone cut - it's under the stairs at home, it has been there ever since Jan Morris

Morris is best known for her Pax Britannia trilogy of books on the rise and fall of the British Empire as well as her travel tomes.

She said Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, published in 2001, would be her final work.

"Having written that book I thought, 'You will never write such a good book as that again,'" she said.

She has, however, since released updated versions of previous works and collections of her existing writing.

Her other books include Conundrum, a book about her 1972 sex change.

'Not pretentious'

Morris, who was made a CBE in 1999, said Allegorizings would have two themes - ageing and the fact "that nothing in life is simple or single".

"I'm very interested in death, who isn't?" said Morris. "I have been personally concerned with my own death for ages. About 30 years ago I had our gravestone cut.

"It's under the stairs at home, it has been there ever since."

She revealed little about her final book, but said it was not morbid. "It's not a pretentious book," she said. "I hope it's a merry book in fact."