|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The former literary editor is the oldest winner of the prize, for her book, which
A 91-year-old who wrote an unflinching memoir encompassing the end of her sex life, the intimacies of ageing and the prospect of death has become the oldest writer to win a Costa prize. Diana Athill, who won the biography category on January 5, triggered an immense nationwide response from readers and critics after writing her sixth and most frank memoir, Somewhere Towards The End, dealing with thorny themes surrounding ageing such as a dwindling desire for sex and physical frailties such as sore feet. When published last year, Somewhere`85 sparked heartfelt responses at readings across the country. The Costa judges hailed it as "a perfect memoir of old age", adding that it was "candid, detailed, charming, totally lacking in self pity or sentimentality and, above all, beautifully, beautifully written". The book is a series of interlinked essays that touch on everything from atheism to gardening and caring. Athill, a former literary editor, said its success could be due to its frank nature, because for "a long time age and death were taboo subjects in this country ... I think the fact that I’m in my nineties and still compos mentis, and able to write and have a nice time, is encouraging to people. They can look at me and say, "There is somebody who is old — which I am dreading — but there, it’s not so bad." She admitted she had some hesitation about writing a detailed account of old age, and nearly dismissed the notion as "a dreary subject".
The overall winner of the `A325,000 Costa Book of the Year prize will be announced on January 27. If Athill wins, she will be its oldest recipient. Born in 1917, she graduated from Oxford in 1939 and worked for the BBC during the Second World War. She later helped to establish the publishing company Andre Deutsch and went on to write five memoirs, including the highly-acclaimed Stet. Over 50 years in publishing, she worked closely with the authors Philip Roth, John Updike, Norman Mailer, Simone de Beauvoir, and V S Naipaul. She retired in 1993. Her fiction includes ‘An Unavoidable Delay’ (1962). — By arrangement with The Independent
|
Athill is one of five
writers who take home a `A35,000 prize for winning their category. The
others were Sebastian Barry for his novel, The Secret Scripture;
Michelle Magorian with her children’s book, Just Henry, which
she wrote after a 10-year hiatus; and two debut writers, Sadie Jones,
whose first novel, The Outcast, was a best-seller, and Adam
Foulds, whose debut poetry collection about the Mau Mau uprisings in
Kenya is called The Broken Word. He has previously written a
novel.