CONSIDERED A MASTERPIECE OF THE "MODERN" MEMOIR UPON PUBLICATION IN 1962, INSTEAD OF A LETTER MARKS THE BEGINNING OF DIANA ATHILL'S BRILLIANT LITERARY CAREER.

Evoking perfectly the picturesque country setting of her youth and her struggles with the comforts and inherited tastes of British gentility, Diana Athill tells of being catapulted, at only fifteen, into a passionate romance with "Paul," a spirited Oxford undergraduate and a member of the RAF. Just as life seems to culminate in her fairy-tale dreams, Paul breaks off the engagement, marries someone else, and - worst of all - dies overseas before she can confront or forgive him. A classic work, Instead of a Letter endures as a bold examination of love, womanhood, and self-discovery.

~