Instead of a Letter - Softcover

Diana Athill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1862074542 ISBN 13: 9781862074545

Publisher: Granta Books, 2001

Synopsis

Diana Athill's childhood was idyllic, brought up in the Norfolk countryside. Aged only 15, she fell in love with a young undergraduate. They travelled to Oxford, engaged to be married. Then everything fell apart in the cruellest possible way. In this modern memoir, Diana Athill dissects the terrible consequences of loss and her struggle to rebuild a personality destroyed by sadness.

About this title

About the Author:

Diana Athill was born in 1917. She worked for the BBC throughout the Second World War before helping Andre Deutsch establish the publishing company that bore his name. For almost fifty years she was widely regarded as one of the finest editors in London, as well as a considerable and unjustly neglected writer. Two of what she called her 'documentary' books, After a Funeral and Instead of a Letter, anticipated the modern memoir in their directness and intimacy. Diana Athill lives in London NW3.

Review:

'The reader sees the transformation of the battered soul into a buoyant woman, openminded and open-hearted' - Hilary Mantel, Spectator

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1862074542
• ISBN 13: 9781862074545
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224