Awards

• Short-listed for Galaxy British Book Awards: Borders Author of the Year 2009
• Short-listed for Independent Booksellers' Week Book of the Year Award: Adults' Book of the Year 2009
• Shortlisted for Galaxy British Book Awards: Borders Author of the Year 2009.
• Shortlisted for Independent Booksellers' Book of the Year Award: Adults 2009.
• Shortlisted for Independent Booksellers' Book of the Year Award: Adults' Book of the Year 2009.
• Shortlisted for Independent Booksellers' Week Book of the Year Award: Adults' Book of the Year 2009.
• Winner of Costa Biography Award 2008.

Overview

Diana Athill is one of the great editors in British publishing. For more than five decades she edited the likes of V. S. Naipaul and Jean Rhys, for whom she was a confidante and caretaker. As a writer, Diana Athill has made her reputation for the frankness and precisely expressed wisdom of her memoirs. Now in her ninety-first year, ""entirely untamed about both old and new conventions"" (Literary Review) and freed from any of the inhibitions that even she may have once had, Athill reflects candidly, and sometimes with great humor, on the condition of being old—the losses and occasionally the gains that age brings, the wisdom and fortitude required to face death. Distinguished by ""remarkable intelligence...[and the] easy elegance of her prose"" (Daily Telegraph), this short, well-crafted book, hailed as ""a virtuoso exercise"" (Sunday Telegraph) presents an inspiring work for those hoping to flourish in their later years.

Full Product Details

9780393067705

Table of Contents

Reviews

[Athill] is bluntly unconcerned with conventional wisdom... . Firmly resolute that no afterlife awaits her, Athill finds just enough optimism in this world to keep her reflections from slipping into morbidity-she may not offer much comfort, but it's a bracing read. An honest joy to read. -- Alice Munro With the wisdom of nine decades, Diana Athill gives us a memoir that faces aging unflinchingly. From the end of sexual desire to her thoughts and fears on dying and God, Athill deals with growing old with bravery, humor and honesty. What a woman! What a life! What a gorgeous book! -- Ann Hood, author of Comfort and The Knitting Circle One of England's notable book editors examines life, old age and approaching death with astonishing candor...distinguished by her spare, direct prose...Although she knows that death cannot be far off, the present is full of quiet satisfactions...Fiercely intelligent, discomfortingly honest and never dull. [A] little literary gem, penned by a marvelous, feisty old character whom, quite honestly, I'd just love to have as my grandmother...What a treasure. -- Val Hennessy An astute editor, she writes with precision and clarity, using one word to convey an idea that a lesser writer might expand into a paragraph...[Athill is] an enlightened woman. -- Mary Russell Reflections on old age, rather than on a long life lived are rare...It is rarer still for a woman to write such a book: so Athill's candor and economic prose on religion, regrets, and sex are invigorating. -- Emma Jacobs

""[Athill] is bluntly unconcerned with conventional wisdom... . Firmly resolute that no afterlife awaits her, Athill finds just enough optimism in this world to keep her reflections from slipping into morbidity-she may not offer much comfort, but it's a bracing read."" -- Publishers Weekly ""An honest joy to read."" -- Alice Munro ""With the wisdom of nine decades, Diana Athill gives us a memoir that faces aging unflinchingly. From the end of sexual desire to her thoughts and fears on dying and God, Athill deals with growing old with bravery, humor and honesty. What a woman! What a life! What a gorgeous book!"" -- Ann Hood, author of Comfort and The Knitting Circle ""One of England's notable book editors examines life, old age and approaching death with astonishing candor...distinguished by her spare, direct prose...Although she knows that death cannot be far off, the present is full of quiet satisfactions...Fiercely intelligent, discomfortingly honest and never dull."" -- Kirkus Reviews ""[A] little literary gem, penned by a marvelous, feisty old character whom, quite honestly, I'd just love to have as my grandmother...What a treasure."" -- Val Hennessy - Daily Mail ""An astute editor, she writes with precision and clarity, using one word to convey an idea that a lesser writer might expand into a paragraph...[Athill is] an enlightened woman."" -- Mary Russell - The Irish Times ""Reflections on old age, rather than on a long life lived are rare...It is rarer still for a woman to write such a book: so Athill's candor and economic prose on religion, regrets, and sex are invigorating."" -- Emma Jacobs - Financial Times

Now 91, one of England's notable book editors examines life, old age and approaching death with astonishing candor in 16 essays distinguished by her spare, direct prose.Athill (Yesterday Morning, 2002, etc.) does not shy away from uncomfortable subjects: the waning of sexual desire, her qualms about the physical act of dying and her atheism, which deprives her of a comforting belief in the hereafter. Although she knows that death cannot be far off, the present is full of quiet satisfactions. The tiny tree fern that she purchases in the opening essay will not provide shade for her backyard garden in her lifetime, but watching it unfurl its fronds becomes an unexpected and genuine pleasure. Athill vividly describes corpses she has seen and deaths she has witnessed, taking some comfort from the knowledge that among her close relatives the end has been relatively swift and peaceful. Having no children to care for her at the end of her life, she notes sadly but calmly that she will likely end her days in an impersonal institution. With no afterlife to look forward to, the present becomes more precious; hers is filled with reading, writing and reviewing books, gardening, drawing, pottering about and, surprisingly, driving her car. After a highway accident in which only the car was damaged, her love of the freedom provided by driving kept her behind the wheel. Erotic desire may have vanished, but Athill remembers it clearly and is quite candid about relationships with past lovers. Kindness and loving friendship are more important than sexual fidelity, she asserts, demonstrating this with brief anecdotes of her affairs. At the time of writing, she has reluctantly but dutifully become caretaker for a man she has lived with for nearly half a century. Their life now, she writes matter-of-factly, is in about equal parts, both sad and boring. Fiercely intelligent, discomfortingly honest and never dull. (Kirkus Reviews)

examines life, old age and approaching death with astonishing candor in 16 essays distinguished by her spare, direct prose. Athill (Yesterday Morning, 2002, etc.) does not shy away from uncomfortable subjects: the waning of sexual desire, her qualms about the physical act of dying and her atheism, which deprives her of a comforting belief in the hereafter. Although she knows that death cannot be far off, the present is full of quiet satisfactions. The tiny tree fern that she purchases in the opening essay will not provide shade for her backyard garden in her lifetime, but watching it unfurl its fronds becomes an unexpected and genuine pleasure. Athill vividly describes corpses she has seen and deaths she has witnessed, taking some comfort from the knowledge that among her close relatives the end has been relatively swift and peaceful. Having no children to care for her at the end of her life, she notes sadly but calmly that she will likely end her days in an impersonal institution. With no afterlife to look forward to, the present becomes more precious; hers is filled with reading, writing and reviewing books, gardening, drawing, pottering about and, surprisingly, driving her car. After a highway accident in which only the car was damaged, her love of the freedom provided by driving kept her behind the wheel. Erotic desire may have vanished, but Athill remembers it clearly and is quite candid about relationships with past lovers. Kindness and loving friendship are more important than sexual fidelity, she asserts, demonstrating this with brief anecdotes of her affairs. At the time of writing, she has reluctantly but dutifully become caretaker for a man she has lived with for nearly halfa century. Their life now, she writes matter-of-factly, is in about equal parts, both sad and boring. Fiercely intelligent, discomfortingly honest and never dull.

Author Information

Diana Athill was born in 1917. After a distinguished career as a book editor, she won the National Book Critics Circle and Costa Biography Awards for her memoir Somewhere Towards the End. In January 2009, she was presented with an OBE. She lives in Highgate, London.

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