Somewhere Towards the End:A Memoir

An esteemed memoirist examines aging with the grace of “Elegy for Iris” and the wry irreverence of “I Feel Bad About My Neck,” Diana Athill is one of the great editors in British publishing. For more than five decades she edited the likes of V. S. Naipaul and Jean Rhys, for whom she was a confidante and caretaker. As a writer, Diana Athill has made her reputation for the frankness and precisely expressed wisdom of her memoirs. Now in her ninety-first year, “entirely untamed about both old and new conventions” (“Literary Review”) and freed from any of the inhibitions that even she may have once had, Athill reflects candidly, and sometimes with great humor, on the condition of being old–the losses and occasionally the gains that age brings, the wisdom and fortitude required to face death. Distinguished by “remarkable intelligence… and the] easy elegance of her prose” (“Daily Telegraph”), this short, well-crafted book, hailed as “a virtuoso exercise” (“Sunday Telegraph”) presents an inspiring work for those hoping to flourish in their later years.