Somewhere Towards The End

Description

What is it like to be old? Diana Athill made her reputation as a writer with the candour of her memoirs - her commitment, in her words, 'to understand, to be aware, to touch the truth'. Written in her nineties, when she was free from any inhibitions she may have once had, she reflects frankly on the losses and occasionally the gains that old age can bring, and on the wisdom and fortitude required to face death. A lively narrative filled with events, lovers and friendships, Somewhere Towards the End encapsulates the vibrant final decades of Athill's life; the people and experiences that taught her to regret very little, to resist despondency and always question the beliefs and customs of your own generation.

Diana Athill was born in 1917. She helped Andre Deutsch establish the publishing company that bore his name and worked as an editor for Deutsch for four decades. Athill's distinguished career as an editor is the subject of her acclaimed memoir Stet. She is the author of seven further volumes of memoirs, Instead of a Letter, After a Funeral, Yesterday Morning, Make Believe, Somewhere Towards the End, Alive, Alive Oh!, A Florence Diary, and a collection of letters, Instead of a Book, all published by Granta. Her only novel, Don't Look At Me Like That, was first published in 1967. In January 2009, she won the Costa Biography Award for Somewhere Towards the End, and was presented with an OBE. She died in January 2019.

'There is a sense throughout Athill's work that you are making a new friend asmuch as reading a new story ... a delight to read' - Observer 'The book is a moving and humorous account of old age, unsparing about itsindignities, unflinching from the inevitability that the end can not be many yearsaway, but full of joy at the way life keeps on, at the most unexpected moments,renewing itself' - Irish Times 'Part expos, part treatise on old age, the book is a ruminative read' - SundayTimes 'Her brilliant book is entirely lacking in the usual regrets, nostalgia and Hovis-adrecollections of old-timers. It is a little literary gem, penned by a marvellous, feistyold character ... What a treasure' - Daily Mail