Diana Athill | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1917-12-21)21 December 1917 Kensington,London, England |
| Died | 23 January 2019(2019-01-23) (aged 101) London, England |
| Occupation | Literary editor, author, publisher |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Lady Margaret Hall,University of Oxford |
| Genre | Novels and memoirs |
| Notable works | After a Funeral,Somewhere Towards the End |
| Notable awards | OBE,PEN/Ackerley Prize,Costa Book Award,National Book Critics Circle Award |
| Relatives | Philip Athill (nephew) |
Diana AthillOBE (21 December 1917 – 23 January 2019) was a British literary editor, novelist and memoirist who worked with some of the greatest writers of the 20th century at the London-based publishing companyAndre Deutsch Ltd.[2]
Diana Athill was born inKensington, London, during a World War IZeppelin bombing raid,[3] daughter of Major Lawrence Francis Imbert Athill (1888–1957) and Alice Katharine (1895–1990), whose father was the biographerWilliam Carr (1862–1925). Diana had a brother, Andrew, and a sister, Patience.[3] Her maternal grandmother was the daughter ofJames Franck Bright (1832–1920), aMaster ofUniversity College,Oxford.[4] She was brought up atDitchingham Hall inNorfolk, a country house owned by her mother's family.[5][6]
Athill graduated fromLady Margaret Hall, Oxford, in 1939[7] and worked for theBBC throughout theSecond World War.[8]
After the war, Athill helped her friendAndré Deutsch establish the publishing house Allan Wingate, and five years later, in 1952, she was a founding director of the publishing company that was given his name.[9] She worked closely with many Deutsch authors, includingPhilip Roth,Norman Mailer,John Updike,Mordecai Richler,Simone de Beauvoir,Jean Rhys,Gitta Sereny,Brian Moore,V. S. Naipaul,Molly Keane,Stevie Smith,Jack Kerouac,Charles Gidley Wheeler,Margaret Atwood, andDavid Gurr.[10][11]
Athill retired from Deutsch in 1993 at the age of 75, after more than 50 years in publishing.[3] She continued to influence the literary world through her revealing memoirs about her editorial career.
The first book of her own writing to appear was the short story collectionAn Unavoidable Delay (1962), and she published two further works of fiction: a novel entitledDon't Look at Me Like That (1967) and in 2011 another volume of stories,Midsummer Night in the Workhouse. She was best known, however, for her books of memoirs, the first of which wasInstead of a Letter in 1963. These memoirs were not written in chronological order,Yesterday Morning (2002) being the account of her childhood. She also translated various works from French.
She appeared onDesert Island Discs in 2004 at the age of 86 and selected a recording ofHaydn'sThe Creation as the most valued of the eight records andThackeray'sVanity Fair as the book.[12]
In 2008, she won theCosta Book Award for her memoirSomewhere Towards The End, a book about old age.[13] For the same book, she also received theNational Book Critics Circle Award in 2009.[14]
Athill was appointed anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the2009 New Year Honours for services to literature.[15]
In June 2010, she was the subject of a BBC documentary,Growing Old Disgracefully, part of theImagine series.[16] In 2013, she was listed as one of the 50 best-dressed over-50s byThe Guardian.[17]
In 2011,Granta Books publishedInstead of a Book: Letters to a Friend, a collection of letters from Athill to the American poetEdward Field chronicling their intimate correspondence spanning more than 30 years (he kept all her letters, she kept none of his).[18][19] Granta Books published two further titles by her:Alive, Alive Oh!: And Other Things That Matter in 2015 andA Florence Diary in 2016.
According to journalistMick Brown, "She attributes her flight from convention to her first love, Tony Irvine, an RAF pilot with whom she fell in love at the age of 15, and who was blessed, she says, 'with a very open approach to life.'"[20] The failure of her relationship with Irvine (referred to as Paul inInstead of a Letter),[11] her "great love", "blighted" many years: "My affairs after that, I kept them trivial if I possibly could. I was frightened of intensity, because I knew I was going to be hurt."[20] Irvine went to war inEgypt, and eventually stopped replying to Athill's letters, then two years later requested an end to theirengagement.[3] At the age of 43, Athill suffered amiscarriage.[3]
She called herself a "sucker for oppressed foreigners", an inclination she characterized as a "funny kink" in her maternal instinct: "I never particularly wanted children, but it came out in liking lame ducks."[20] One lover, the Egyptian authorWaguih Ghali, a depressive, committed suicide in her flat. Her most remarkable affair, about which she later wrote a book, was "a fleeting, and distinctly odd" relationship withHakim Jamal, an American Black radical who asserted he was God and was a cousin ofMalcolm X. Jamal's other lover,Gale Benson, was murdered by Trinidadian Black Power leaderMichael X. Jamal was killed by others a year later.[20] Athill's account of these events was published in 1993 asMake Believe: A True Story.
Her longest relationship was with the Jamaican playwrightBarry Reckord. The affair lasted eight years, but he shared her flat for forty. She described it as a "detached" sort of marriage.[20]
She moved into a flat in a north London residence for the "active elderly" at the end of 2009,[21] saying about this decision: "Almost at once on arrival at the home I knew that it was going to suit me. And sure enough, it does. A life free of worries in a snug little nest....".[22] Even during her old age, she reemphasized that she had no regrets about not having her own children, saying: "I dearly love certain young people of my acquaintance and am happy to have them in my life, but am I sorry that they are not my descendants? No...."[23]
Athill died at a hospice in London on 23 January 2019, aged 101, following a short illness.[24][25][26]
Her nephew and heir, the art historianPhilip Athill,[27] is managing director of the dealership and gallery,Abbott and Holder.[28]
Worked for the BBC during the Second World War and afterwards as a publisher.
Her beloved nephew and heir, Phil Athill
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