The literary editor and memoirist turns 100 this month, and what better way to celebrate than answering Guardian readers’ questions? She’ll be online on Monday 11 December from 2pm GMT 3.14pm GMT On 21 December 21, Diana Athill will be 100 years old. This is an achievement in itself, though Athill has never been one to congratulate herself for simply hanging on in there. A 50-year career in publishing at Andre Deutsch, working closely with an illustrious portfolio of writers including Jean Rhys, Philip Roth, John Updike and Margaret Atwood among many others, would be more than enough to satisfy most people. But after retiring in 1993 at the age of 75, she simply cracked on with her second career as a memoirist, in the process eclipsing many of the writers whose work she used to edit.Athill’s books detail her extraordinary life in vivid and unflinching detail, from her childhood at Ditchingham Hall, Norfolk, to working for the BBC during the second world war, to her overseas travels and affairs with various fascinating, unstable men – one, Egyptian writer Waguih Ghali, committed suicide at her home; another, the African-American activist Hakim Jamal, was assassinated. Her most recent memoir, 2015’s Alive, Alive Oh!, reflected on losing a baby at the age of 43 – and almost dying herself in the process. Yet having survived to an age that most people never get to experience, she writes powerfully about what really matters from her special vantage point. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2017-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
A former radio producer, she interviewed thousands of veterans for books that made her known as “the recording angel of the common soldier.” Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-04-22 15:07:00 UTC ]
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"I had a physical reaction. It literally made the hairs on my arm stand up.” Phil Earle is talking about the moment he heard the true story which inspired his new children’s book When the Sky Falls. The story was “gifted” to him by a family member, whose father was part of the Manchester home... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-19 20:44:59 UTC ]
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Tom Maschler Born 16th August 1933 Died 15th October 2020 Rogers, Coleridge & White managing director Peter Straus remembers the late, acclaimed publisher Like many of the impressive publishers to emerge after the Second World War, Tom Maschler was a Jewish émigré from Europe. He was... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-10-30 04:38:04 UTC ]
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Virago has acquired a new book from Sonia Purnell, telling the "explosive" story of Pamela Harriman, Winston and Clementine Churchill’s beloved daughter-in-law, and "secret weapon" during the Second World War. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-22 04:52:06 UTC ]
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Faber is publishing Lou Kuenzler's latest middle-grade novel, inspired by the stories of the female footballers who rose to fame following the First World War. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-06-07 17:42:25 UTC ]
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Mirror Books will publish new memoir about the only living sisters to have signed the Official Secrets Act during the Second World War. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-04 12:36:25 UTC ]
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Walker Books will publish Michael Rosen’s The Missing; The True Story of my Family in World War Two in January 2020. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-26 17:56:29 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has snapped up The Kingfisher Patrol, a new novel from Hazel Gaynor set in Japanese-occupied China during the Second World War. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-06 00:37:34 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has snapped up a World War Two novel "full of friendship and hope" by Christopher de Vinck, that was inspired by the essayist's family. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-24 00:58:20 UTC ]
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My friend George Richardson, who has died aged 94, spent most of his working life at Oxford University, including as chief executive of Oxford University Press (OUP) from the mid-1970s to the late 80s.He was born in Cricklewood, north London, to Christina, a homemaker, and George, a businessman.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-09-26 16:53:02 UTC ]
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Harvill Secker has picked up an "astonishing" novel from Ciarán McMenamin set in Ireland after the First World War. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-25 12:14:24 UTC ]
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As the world verges on World War I, the battle of the sexes rages in “Kopp Sisters on the March.” Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-09-16 14:00:00 UTC ]
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Matthew Stanley describes an international effort during World War I to support his most famous theory. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2019-06-20 18:39:41 UTC ]
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Imperial War Museums will launch a new classic fiction series this September to mark the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, the Imperial War Museums Wartime Classics series. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury UK and US have both pre-empted on the first novel by award-winning short fiction writer L Annette Binder, inspired by her own family’s experience under the Third Reich. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Collection of short pieces, which has been in the works for more than a decade, takes stock of The Snowman author’s lifeRaymond Briggs is one of the UK’s most beloved children’s authors, the creator of characters from The Snowman to Fungus the Bogeyman. But in his forthcoming book Time for... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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University lecturer Claire Gradidge has won the Richard and Judy ‘Search for a Bestseller’ competition for her World War Two crime novel The Unexpected Return of Josephine Fox. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bart van Es wrote about a Jewish girl who was sheltered by his grandparents during World War Two. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2019-01-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A painting provided the inspiration for Lucy Strange’s second children’s book, about a family struggling with the outbreak of the Second World War. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jarrett Krosoczka’s recent memoir is about growing up with a parent struggling with addiction. But its messages for young people focus on resiliency and giving thanks. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2018-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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