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 ]
Independent publisher Alma Books has signed a middle-grade story about what happened to all the pets in World War Two by Miriam Halahmy. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-02-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Annotated version of Adolf Hitler’s opus, which ‘unmasks his false allegations, whitewashing and outright lies’, will debut at 20 on non-fiction chart after publishers received 15,000 orders A new critical edition of Mein Kampf is set to make its debut on German bestseller lists this weekend,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-01-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Adolf Hitler’s political manifesto Mein Kampf is to be published for the first time in Germany since the end of the Second World War, the BBC has reported. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-12-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It’s 1956 and Germany and Japan rule the world after winning the Second World War. To celebrate their success, Hitler and Hirohito run an annual youth motorcycle race between Berlin and Tokyo which tests competitors’ stamina, skills and ability to survive. And not just against the often terrible... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-11-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Michael Morpurgo has signed a three book deal with HarperCollins and the first new title will be published later this month. Eagle in the Snow, released 8th October (h/b, £12.99), was inspired by the true story of Henry Tandey, the most decorated British soldier of the First World War and the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Animals, World War Two and an aspiring Olympic runner are among the subjects of stories shortlisted for the Scottish Children's Book Awards. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2015-09-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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‘If a man wants to write about gender and the pitfalls of masculinity, they’re met with sneers,’ says the bestselling author, who disputes criticism that he is antifeministThe author Matt Haig found himself “crucified” online after suggesting that his next non-fiction title could be a book... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Author of The Caine Mutiny will look back on his century of experience in Sailor and FiddlerThere can’t be many centenarians who can celebrate their birthday by raising a glass to a new professional departure, but Herman Wouk – 100 on Wednesday, 27 May – is about to publish his first memoir.... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Exceptional service in the Second World War was a prologue to a publishing career at two influential global groups for Gordon Graham, who is remembered by former publishing analyst Eric de Bellaigue Gordon Graham, who died on 24th April 2015 aged 94, was a past president of the Publishers... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-05-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The estate of Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s minister for propaganda during the Second World War, is suing publisher Random House Germany for using an extract from his diaries. The biography Goebbels, published in Germany in 2010 under the Siedler imprint, is by Peter Longerich, professor of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Passion! Mystery! Crime! After the Australian government banned the import of American pulp magazines at the onset of the second world war, publisher Frank Johnson stepped into the market with a flurry of crime, adventure and romance novels. Drawn from his archives, a collection of cover art,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-04-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jessie Childs has won the 2015 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for history for her book about religious persecution in Elizabethan England, God's Traitors (Bodley Head). She beat off competition from five other shortlisted authors to win the £2,000 annual prize, funded by former PEN member Marjorie... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jenny Uglow and Mark Bostridge are among the five authors shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History 2015. The £2,000 prize, funded from former PEN member Marjorie Hessell-Tiltman’s bequest to English PEN, celebrates the best non-fiction on a historical subject from any period up... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster will publish a book by William Sitwell on how Lord Woolton kept Britain fed during the Second World War. Non-fiction publishing director Iain MacGregor acquired world rights for Eggs or Anarchy in a deal with Caroline Michel at PFD. The book looks at Woolton's time as the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penguin Random House Children’s will this autumn publish a new Second World War novel from John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Set for publication in September 2015, The Boy at the Top of the Mountain is about an orphan called Pierrot who is sent to the home of Adolf Hitler... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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My friend Sarah Foot, who has died aged 75 after a short illness, was a Cornish writer, social worker and much-loved member of the celebrated Foot clan. She was the daughter of the diplomat and politician Hugh Foot (later Lord Caradon), niece of the former Labour leader Michael Foot and sister... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-03-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Myrmidon has acquired the true story of a young British girl and her family trapped in France during the Second World War after her father is incarcerated by the Nazis. Kate Nash, director at Myrmidon, acquired world rights to the memoir, titled Nell and the Girls, direct from the author,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2015-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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US marines veteran Phil Klay, whose short story collection about the Iraq war won a National book award, chooses his favourite books about homecoming after conflictI’ve spent years trying to untangle my feelings about returning from war, and I’m hardly the only veteran writer to do so. In his... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Angry Robot has signed a two books from Arthur C Clarke-nominated author Matthew De Abaitua. The publisher bought world English rights in a deal wit Sarah Such of Sarah Such Literary Agency. The first book, If Then, is a novel in two parts, covering both the First World War and an English town... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2014-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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