Diana Athill's Extraordinary Life, By Dipika Mukherjee
I “found” Diana Athill rather late in my reading life, and I have V.S. Naipaul to thank for it. A week after Naipaul’s death, Athill wrote an essay about being Naipaul's editor. She described admiring Naipaul’s work but disliking the man , and there was such certitude in her storytelling voice that I was immediately hooked. I hunted down Stet . Part historical overview of British publishing, part break-room office gossip, it was riveting. Athill had been a well-regarded British editor for fifty years, and her own literary career took off after her retirement; this book was published when she was 83 years old. When I read Stet , Diana Athill was already a hundred years old, yet meteoric in the British literary scene. She became my hero; this rare, ageless female writer, one who discusses literary nuances and sexual romps with great pleasure. Athill’s editorial training is evident in every crisp, well-crafted sentence. When she announces her inabil...