Diana's Fans (10)

Diana Athill

Author profile

born

December 21, 1917 in Norfolk, The United Kingdom

About this author

edit data

Diana Athill was born in Norfolk in 1917 and educated at home until she was fourteen. She read English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and graduated in 1939. She spent the war years working at the BBC Overseas Service in the News Information Department. After the war she met André Deutsch and fell into publishing. She worked as an editor, first at Allan Wingate and then at André Deutsch, until her retirement at the age of 75 in 1993.

Her books include An Unavoidable Delay, a collection of short stories published in 1962 and two 'documentary' books After A Funeral and Make Believe. Stet is a memoir of Diana Athill's fifty-year career in publishing. Granta has also reissued a memoir Instead of a Letter and her only novel Don't Look at Me Like T...more

combine editions
Books by Diana Athill

Average rating: 3.73 · 1,273 ratings · 360 reviews · 16 distinct works

	Somewhere Towards the End 3.54 avg rating — 548 ratings — published 2008 — 10 editions	My rating:
	Stet: An Editor's Life 3.89 avg rating — 198 ratings — published 2000 — 6 editions	My rating:
	Instead of a Letter 3.74 avg rating — 155 ratings — published 1962 — 10 editions	My rating:
	Yesterday Morning 3.97 avg rating — 39 ratings — published 2002 — 5 editions	My rating:
	After A Funeral 3.78 avg rating — 36 ratings — 6 editions	My rating:
	Life Class: The Selected Memoirs 3.95 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Don't Look at Me Like That 3.47 avg rating — 19 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	Midsummer Night in the Workhouse 3.35 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Letters to a Friend by Diana Athill, Edward Field (Goodreads Author) (Introduction) 3.83 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2011 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Make Believe: A True Story 3.58 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 1993 — 3 editions	My rating:

More books by Diana Athill…

Upcoming Events

No scheduled events. Add an event.

Quotes by Diana Athill

“An important aspect of the ebbing of sex was that other things became interesting. Sex obliterates the individuality of young women more often than it does that of young men, because so much more of a woman than a man is used by sex.”
― Diana Athill, Somewhere Towards the End

tags: aging , life , sex , somewhere-towards-the-end , women

3 people liked it

“I have heard people bewailing man's landing on the moon, as though before it was touched by an astronaut's foot it was made of silver or mother-of-pearl, and that footprint turned it into gray dust. But the moon never was made of mother-of-pearl, and it still shines as if it were so made.”
― Diana Athill, Somewhere Towards the End

1 person liked it

“To me it was plain silly. It is so obvious that life works in terms of species rather than individuals. The individual just has to be born, to develop to the point at which it can procreate, and then to fall away into death to make way for its successors, and humans are no exception whatever they may fancy.”
― Diana Athill, Somewhere Towards the End

tags: growing-old , life , social-science

1 person liked it

See all Diana Athill's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Seasonal Read...: Winter Challenge 2010-2011 Completed Tasks (do not delete any posts)	2596	666	Feb 28, 2011 09:05pm
Hydrousa Reading ...: First Book Choice	9	5	Mar 25, 2012 09:40pm
Reading with Style: 20.5 - Making History	33	58	May 29, 2012 08:15pm
Fiction Fair: Book Title Game	2244	67	3 hours, 51 min ago

More…

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Diana to Goodreads.