Yesterday Morning: a very English childhood - Diana Athill (2002)
Read on Kindle
A remarkable, truthful and vivid recollection of childhood, from the author of Stet, After a Funeral, Don't Look at Me Like That and Instead of a Letter. Here Athill goes back to the beginning in a sharp evocation of a childhood unfashionably filled with happiness - a Norfolk country house, servants, the pleasures of horses, the unfolding secrets of adults and sex. This is England in the 1920s seen (with a clear and unsentimental eye) from the vantage point of England in 2001. It was a privileged and loving life: but did it equip the author to be happy?
Diana Athill was in her eighties when she wrote this memoir. It is full of fascinating social history from her privileged upbringing in Norfolk. Childhood exploits, ghosts in the nursery and a great deal of happiness, Diana Athill knows just how blessed she was. A story of a miraculous walk through nettles while looking for the household dogs is just one memorable tale. Diana Athill paints a wonderfully vivid picture of a life lived by a nice family of a certain class. She also poignantly describes her relationship with her mother - who lived until she was ninety six. With great honesty Diana explores her parents relationship, and why it was that she and her siblings hadn't such a close relationship with him. This is a short, well written memoir which I found completely charming and very readable.
A remarkable, truthful and vivid recollection of childhood, from the author of Stet, After a Funeral, Don't Look at Me Like That and Instead of a Letter. Here Athill goes back to the beginning in a sharp evocation of a childhood unfashionably filled with happiness - a Norfolk country house, servants, the pleasures of horses, the unfolding secrets of adults and sex. This is England in the 1920s seen (with a clear and unsentimental eye) from the vantage point of England in 2001. It was a privileged and loving life: but did it equip the author to be happy?
Diana Athill was in her eighties when she wrote this memoir. It is full of fascinating social history from her privileged upbringing in Norfolk. Childhood exploits, ghosts in the nursery and a great deal of happiness, Diana Athill knows just how blessed she was. A story of a miraculous walk through nettles while looking for the household dogs is just one memorable tale. Diana Athill paints a wonderfully vivid picture of a life lived by a nice family of a certain class. She also poignantly describes her relationship with her mother - who lived until she was ninety six. With great honesty Diana explores her parents relationship, and why it was that she and her siblings hadn't such a close relationship with him. This is a short, well written memoir which I found completely charming and very readable.