Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
At 92, Diana Athill was suddenly a celebrity. Her frank and entertaining memoirs, mainly written after the age at which most people retire, charted a life less ordinary. She'd had a string of love affairs, mainly with married, black and/or younger men; enjoyed 50 years of success as an editor, working with writers as distinguished as Jean Rhys, Molly Keane, Norman Mailer and VS Naipaul; and led a privileged childhood in a Norfolk mansion.
When Alan Yentob met her, she had recently chosen to go into an old people's home where they take people 'who have had interesting lives'. They discussed her life, her work and her outspoken thoughts on death.
At 92, Diana Athill was suddenly a celebrity. Her frank and entertaining memoirs, mainly written after the age at which most people retire, charted a life less ordinary. She'd had a string of love affairs, mainly with married, black and/or younger men; enjoyed 50 years of success as an editor, working with writers as distinguished as Jean Rhys, Molly Keane, Norman Mailer and VS Naipaul; and led a privileged childhood in a Norfolk mansion.
When Alan Yentob met her, she had recently chosen to go into an old people's home where they take people 'who have had interesting lives'. They discussed her life, her work and her outspoken thoughts on death.
