Don't Look At Me Like That
Published on 5. December 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-1-78378-580-3 (ISBN)
Description
England, in the mid-fifties. Meg Bailey has always aspired to live a respectable life. With her best friend, Roxane, she moves from secondary school to an un-bohemian art college in Oxford. Under the watchful eye of Roxanne's mother, Mrs Wheeler, the two girls flourish in Oxfordian society. But Meg constantly longs for more. Not content to stay in Oxford, she finds a job in London. Roxane stays behind and marries Dick, a man of Mrs Wheeler's choosing.
As Meg's independence grows, Dick suddenly appears in London for work. A connection to her past, Meg and Dick's friendship flourishes, blurring the lines of loyalty between what is and what was in a way that changes life for these three friends forever.
As sharp and starling now as when it was written, this unflinching and candid book of love and betrayal encapsulates Diana Athill's gift of storytelling at its finest.
As Meg's independence grows, Dick suddenly appears in London for work. A connection to her past, Meg and Dick's friendship flourishes, blurring the lines of loyalty between what is and what was in a way that changes life for these three friends forever.
As sharp and starling now as when it was written, this unflinching and candid book of love and betrayal encapsulates Diana Athill's gift of storytelling at its finest.
Reviews / Votes
[The writing] shows [Athill's] editor's eye... This novel shows not so much that Athill should have written more fiction - we wouldn't want to be without those memoirs - but that she could * Guardian * Don't Look at Me Like That evokes a London of rain; grimy bedsits, plush, hushed restaurants, illicitness and despair...Athill skilfully blends diffidence and pathos to produce a story at once all-too familiar and unique -- Catherine Taylor Athill is wonderful - always aware of the need to entertain and beguile her reader ... Fascinating and surprising -- Daisy Goodwin * Sunday Times * A tale of love and betrayal * Monocle * A short, sharp shock... beautifully observed... nuanced and true... Don't Look At Me Like That deserves to become a classic of bedsit lit... spare and unsparing... I loved this book. Meg fascinates... Read this book in your teens and twenties, and think: "Oh god, that's me." Read it later and think: "Thank god, that's over" * Times * Diana Athill was a force for good in the world of books, a champion for women wanting to make their own way, unconfined by the pressures of society. Her openness and honesty made readers feel that they were truly seen and understood; that our lives might just be as remarkable as hers -- Erica Wagner * Harper's Bazaar *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
182 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78378-580-3 (9781783785803)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Previous edition
Diana Athill
Don't Look At Me Like That
Book
08/2001
Granta Books
€28.67
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
DIANA ATHILL was born in 1917. She helped Andre Deutsch establish the publishing company that bore his name and worked as an editor for Deutsch for four decades. Athill's distinguished career as an editor is the subject of her acclaimed memoir Stet (Granta Books, 2011), along with five further volumes of memoirs, Instead of a Letter, After a Funeral, Yesterday Morning, Make Believe, Somewhere Towards the End, a novel, Don't Look at Me Like That, and a collection of letters, Instead of a Book. In January 2009, she won the Costa Biography Award for Somewhere Towards the End, and was presented with an OBE. She died in January 2019.