Sydney

Renowned and much-loved travel writer Jan Morris turns her eye to Sydney: ''not the best of the cities the British Empire created ... but the most hyperbolic, the youngest at heart, the shiniest.'' Sydney takes us on the city''s journey from penal colony to world-class metropolis, as lively and charming as the city it describes. With characteristic exuberance and sparkling prose, Jan Morris guides us through the history, people and geography of a fascinating and colourful city.

Jan Morris''s collection of travel writing and reportage spans over five decades and includes such titles as Venice, Hong Kong, Spain, Manhattan ''45, A Writer''s World and the Pax Britannica Trilogy. Hav, her novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

''Sydney should be flattered. A great portrait painter has chosen it for her recent subject . . . Few writers - a handful of novelists apart - have got so far under the city''s skin as Morris . . . Few Sydneysiders could match her knowledge of their city''s history and its anecdotes'' The Times

''The writing is, at times, like surfing: sentences rise like vast waves above which she rides, never overbalancing into gush . . . Jan Morris convincingly explains modern Sydney through its history'' Observer