Instead of a Letter

By: Diana Athill

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Synopsis: When Diana Athill, nearly forty-three and far from a household name, sat down to write Instead of a Letter, the first in her series of trailblazing memoirs, she was looking for an answer to the question &“What have I lived for?&” In this searching book, she recalls her child-hood on her grandparents&’ magnificent estate, the teenage romance that was certain to lead to marriage, her university days coinciding with the Second World War, and the sudden dissolution of her engagement, a loss that became the defining experience of the next twenty years of her life. Athill is as forthright in confessing her faults as she is in celebrating her triumphs. &“From this table, with this white tea-cup, full ashtray, and small glass half full of rum beside me,&” she writes, &“I see my story, ordinary enough though it has all been and sad though much of it was, as a success story.&”