Somewhere Towards the End (15 page)

T
HE TREE FERN:
it now has nine fronds each measuring about twelve inches long, and within a few days of each frond unfurling to its full length, a little nub of green appears in the fuzzy top of the ‘trunk' (out of which all fronds sprout and into which you have to pour water). This little nub is the start of a new frond, which grows very slowly to begin with but faster towards the end – so much faster that you can almost see it moving. I was right in thinking that I will never see it being a tree, but I underestimated the pleasure of watching it being a fern. It was worth buying.

‘Tolstoy was wrong. All happy families are not alike; certainly all happy people are not alike. There are so few of them it's hard to compare. But one thing is clear: Diana Athill is a happy person, and there's no one remotely like her … On sex especially everyone over sixty should read her – and everyone under sixty too'
Literary Review

‘Her eye is unflinching, her prose as clear and graceful as ever; her honesty is inspiring'
Spectator

‘Exhilarating and comforting, so much good sense, candour and liveliness of spirit in such clean, clear prose' Simon Gray

‘Informative, honest and lacking in the usual sorrow over old age. A remarkable woman' Beryl Bainbridge

‘Brave, amusing and graceful'
Sunday Telegraph

‘A convivial memoirist, full of clarity and wit, original thought and understated insight'
Metro

‘[An] honest, clear-sighted book'
Independent

‘Her brilliant book is entirely lacking in the usual regrets, nostalgia and Hovis-ad recollections of old-timers. It is a little literary gem, penned by a marvellous, feisty old character whom, quite honestly, I'd just love to have as my grandmother. What a treasure'
Daily Mail

‘Vive la Athill!'
The Times

‘Packed with humorous anecdotes, this is an inspiration'
Woman and Home

‘A splendid read, upbeat, often amusing, ironic and always superbly intelligent on any and every subject'
Oldie

‘Athill's candour and economic prose on religion, regrets and sex are invigorating'
Financial Times

Diana Athill
was born in 1917. She worked for the BBC throughout the Second World War and then helped André Deutsch establish the publishing company that bore his name. Athill's distinguished career as an editor is the subject of her acclaimed memoir Stet, which is also published by Granta Books, as are four other volumes of memoirs –
Instead of a Letter, After a Funeral, Yesterday Morning, Make Believe
– and a novel,
Don't Look at Me Like That. Somewhere Towards the End
won the 2008 Costa Biography Award.