- Published: 03/02/2022
- ISBN: 9781783787432
- Granta Books
- 240 pages
Instead Of A Letter
Diana Athill
Diana Athill’s childhood was idyllic, brought up in the Norfolk countryside. Aged only fifteen, 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 classic modern memoir, Diana Athill dissects the terrible consequences of loss and her struggle to rebuild a personality destroyed by sadness. Yet for all its unhappiness, Instead of a Letter remains a story of hope, written with the frank intelligence and lack of self-pity that have become the hallmarks of Athill’s writing.
£9.99
Her first and still most perfect perfect book
Carole Angier, Literary Review
The reader sees the transformation of the battered soul into a buoyant woman, open-minded and open-hearted
Hilary Mantel, Spectator
This classic memoir ... well deserves another airing
Daily Mail
From the Same Author
Diana Athill on Granta.com
Fiction | Granta Books
Don’t Look at Me Like That
Diana Athill
‘When I was at school I used to think that everyone disliked me, and it wasn’t far from true.’
Essays & Memoir | Granta 69
Editing Vidia
Diana Athill
‘I thought so highly of Vidia’s writing and felt his presence on our list to be so important that I simply could not allow myself not to like him.’
Essays & Memoir | Granta 69
Lessons
Diana Athill
‘My two valuable lessons are: avoid romanticism and abhor possessiveness.’