Instead of a Letter (Paperback)

Her first and still most perfect perfect book - Carole Angier, Literary Review

The reader sees the transformation of the battered soul into a buoyant woman, open-minded and open-hearted - Hilary Mantel, Spectator

This classic memoir ... well deserves another airing - Daily Mail

I first came across Diana Athill when I was 17. I picked up her memoir, Instead of a Letter, attracted to its title. I was driven on by avid inexperience, sure that I could find out from Athill what life itself was not yet ready to tell me about love, sex and - most impressively - heartbreak. I admired her elegant vigour and control of words in contrast to the freedom with which she wrote about herself. She became, in my reading life, a friend - Kate Kellaway, Observer

One certainly admires both her and this truly excellent book, which is a masterpiece of confessional literature - Tablet

The documentary of one woman's ordinary and yet, in her telling, wholly extraordinary life - Erica Wagner, The Times

A model mix of clear-eyed analysis and deep, unashamed feeling - Sunday Times