Travel writer, born in Birmingham, West Midlands, C England, UK. He began his career on the staff of the Birmingham Gazette in 1910, becoming assistant editor in 1912. After the success of The Heart of London (1925) and In Search of England (1927), he devoted himself to travel writing, becoming known for his In Search of ... titles. He travelled extensively, writing about the British Isles as well as the Middle East (1941), South Africa (1948), where he finally settled, Spain (1954), Rome (1957), and Israel and Palestine (1961).
Private life
Morton was born at Ashton Under Lyne, Lancashire, the son of Joseph Morton, editor of the Birmingham Mail, and of and Margaret Maclain Ewart, a philanthropist.
He married Dorothy Vaughton (born ~1886/7) on 14 September 1915.
In the late 1940s he moved to South Africa, settling near Cape Town.
Journalism
After school, Morton entered journalism on the staff of the Birmingham Gazette and Express (in 1910), and became its Assistant Editor in 1912.
Travel writing
Morton's first book, The Heart of London, appeared in 1925, and was a development of his popular Daily Express columns. His account of these travels and of the England of the 1920s was published in 1927 as In Search of England, a best-seller that established him as one of the leading travel-writers of the age.
Even greater acclaim greeted Morton's first foreign travel book, In the Steps of the Master (1934), which sold over half a million copies.
After World War II Morton turned his attention to South Africa, publishing In Search of South Africa in 1948.
Honours
He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL).
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