Diana Athill's Stet is a beautifully written, hardheaded, and generally
insightful look back at the heyday of postwar London publishing by a
woman who was at its center for nearly half a century (The Washington
Times). A founding editor of the prestigious publishing house Andre
Deutsch, Ltd., Athill takes us on a guided tour through the corridors of
literary London, offering a keenly observed, devilishly funny, and
always compassionate portrait of the glories and pitfalls of making
books. Stet is a must-read for the literarily curious, who will revel in
Athill's portraits of such great literary figures as Jean Rhys, V. S.
Naipaul, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Mordecai Richler, and others.
Spiced with candid observations about the type of people who make
brilliant writers and ingenious publishers (and the idiosyncrasies of
both), Stet is an invaluable contribution to the literature of
literature, and in the words of the Sunday Telegraph, all would-be
authors and editors should have a copy. Wryly humorous ... notable for
its extraordinary lucidity.... -- The New York Times Book Review A
beguiling tonic to book business sob stories... Stet can barely contain
Athill's charm and great big heart. -- Newsday In addition to telling a
good story, Athill writes profoundly about how she is affected by the
books she loves. -- The Boston Globe
