And there’s Nellie Jackson, a Cadillac-driving brothel madam who became an FBI informant about the KKK before being burned alive by one of her customers. There’s Ginger Hyland, “The Lioness,” who owns 500 antique eyewash cups and decorates 168 Christmas trees with her jewelry collection. There’s Buzz Harper, a six-foot-five gay antique dealer famous for swanning around in a mink coat with a uniformed manservant and a very short German bodybuilder. With humor and insight, he depicts a strange, eccentric town with an unforgettable cast of characters. Much as John Berendt did for Savannah in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and the hit podcast S-Town did for Woodstock, Alabama, so Richard Grant does for Natchez in The Deepest South of All.

Prominent white families dress up in hoopskirts and Confederate uniforms for ritual celebrations of the Old South, yet Natchez is also progressive enough to elect a gay black man for mayor with 91% of the vote. Today it has the greatest concentration of antebellum mansions in the South, and a culture full of unexpected contradictions. Natchez, Mississippi, once had more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in America, and its wealth was built on slavery and cotton. His previous books are Crazy River, God’s Middle Finger, and American Nomads.īestselling travel writer Richard Grant offers an entertaining and profound look at a city like no other. His latest book is Dispatches from Pluto, a New York Times bestseller and Winner of the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize. He grew up in London, England, and now lives in Jackson, Mississippi. He currently writes for Smithsonian magazine, The New York Times, Al Jazeera America, the Telegraph (UK), and several other publications. Richard Grant is an award-winning author, journalist, and television host. Join for a conversation with Greg Iles and bestselling travel writer Richard Grant, author of “The Deepest South of All.”

American nomads by richard grant