Damian Barr

Diana Athill arrived in smoggy pre-War London from genteel Norfolk swapping the country house of her childhood for a flat in then-unfashionable Primrose Hill. Her memoirs are perfection. She brings to life the London of then and the incredible writers whose words would not shine without her polish. Her stories of her years editing Jean Rhys, V. S. Naipaul, Norman Mailer and other greats bring lost literary London to life. Diana died last year aged 101 and remained beady-eyed on and off the page. She remains indomitable - just pick up her memoirs and you can hear her voice ring true.