Yesterday Morning [Hardcover]

Diana Athill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2002

This work completes the circle begun by "Instead of a Letter" and "Stet". Here Diana Athill looks back on a childhood unfashionably filled with happiness - a Norfolk country house, servants, the pleasures of horses, and the unfolding secrets of adults and sex. This is England in the 1920s, seen with an unsentimental eye from the vantage point of England in 2001. It was a privileged and loving life, of course: but did it equip her to be happy?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Delectable...her honesty shines through, giving a wondrous clarity to this warm yet sharp depiction of childhood." --Sunday Times -- Sunday Times, London

"Her valedictory memoir is a revelation." -- Peter Terzian, Newsday, New York

"Like a really good apple: crisp, juicy, at once sweet and tart. . . voice that combines delighted immediacy and ironic distance." -- New York Times Book Review

Remarkable for its truthfulness...Athill writes with such skill and wit...a vivid picture of childhood in a distant world." -- Spectator

About the Author

Diana Athill was born in 1917. She worked for the BBC during the Second World War and then helped Andre Deutsch establish the company that bore his name. For nearly five decades she edited some of the most celebrated writers in the English language until her retirement in 1993. She lives in Primrose Hill, North London.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Granta Books (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1862074844
• ISBN-13: 978-1862074842
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,215,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in 1917 and educated at Oxford University, DIANA ATHILL has written several memoirs, including "Instead of a Letter," "After a Funeral," "Somewhere Towards the End," and the New York Times Notable Book "Stet," about her fifty-year career in publishing. She lives in London and was recently appointed an Officer of the British Empire.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars frank nostalgia, August 14, 2009

By 

Amy (South Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yesterday Morning (Hardcover)

Diana Athill has remarkable recall for the details of a semi-idyllic, semi-horrific childhood in post-Victorian England. She writes very frankly of what it was like to be a child then (powerless, coddled, ignored, free, boarded away). And she draws many parallels with the events of her later life that are featured in her other memoirs.