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Diana Athill

Desert Island Discs Revisited Absent Friends

From Fred Astaire to Haydn. Book editor turned writer Diana Athill shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From June 2004.

Sue Lawley's castaway is the writer and book editor Diana Athill.

For nearly 50 years Diana Athill was involved in every aspect of publishing, from editing and even completely rewriting books to drawing adverts, designing covers and nursing authors for the publishing house Andre Deutsch. They published some of the greatest names of the 20th century, including Norman Mailer, Jack Kerouac, VS Naipaul and Jean Rhys.

Her career has been remarkable, but it was one that she fell into after her original plans for marriage and children fell through. Now aged 86, she is still writing and her novel Make Believe is being republished this autumn - and she still visits the Norfolk estate owned by her family where she spent so much time as a girl riding horses.

Favourite track: O Glucklich Paar by Franz Joseph Haydn
Book: Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Luxury: Her own bed

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2004.

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45 minutes