Diana Athill: Growing Old Disgracefully
Alan Yentob meets Diana Athill, who became a celebrity in her 90s thanks to her frank and entertaining memoirs which chart a life less ordinary.
To celebrate the life of editor and author Diana Athill, who has died at the age at 101, another opportunity to see an Imagine documentary first broadcast in 2010.
At 92, Diana Athill was suddenly a celebrity. Her frank and entertaining memoirs, mainly written after the age at which most people retire, charted a life less ordinary. She'd had a string of love affairs, mainly with married, black and/or younger men; enjoyed 50 years of success as an editor, working with writers as distinguished as Jean Rhys, Molly Keane, Norman Mailer and VS Naipaul; and led a privileged childhood in a Norfolk mansion.
When Alan Yentob met her, she had recently chosen to go into an old people's home where they take people 'who have had interesting lives'. They discussed her life, her work and her outspoken thoughts on death.
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Diana Athill - Growing Old Disgracefully
Duration: 02:13
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Alan Yentob |
Participant | Diana Athill |
Producer | Jill Nicholls |
Director | Jill Nicholls |
Executive Producer | David Okuefuna |
Broadcasts
- Tue 29 Jun 2010 22:35BBC One except Northern Ireland & Wales
- Tue 29 Jun 2010 23:05BBC One Wales
- Tue 29 Jun 2010 23:20BBC One Northern Ireland
- Mon 17 Oct 2011 23:00
- Fri 3 Mar 2017 23:05BBC Two except Northern Ireland
- Sat 11 Mar 2017 23:45BBC Two Northern Ireland
- Tue 29 Jan 2019 23:15BBC Two except Northern Ireland
- Monday 00:25BBC Two except Scotland
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