A collection of candid, entertaining letters, spanning thirty years of wit, wisdom, gossip and intimacy.

Written with an intimacy and spontaneity even more revealing than her celebrated memoirs, Diana Athill's correspondence with the American poet Edward Field covers thirty years of pleasure and pain, fame and gossip, relationships and ailments. Edited, selected and introduced by Athill, this collection of those letters covers her career as an editor and the adventure of her retirement, revealing a sharply intelligent woman with a keen eye for the absurd, a brilliant turn of phrase and a wicked sense of humour. Vivid, direct and entertaining, Instead of a Book is a wonderful insight into a woman growing older without ever losing her zest for life.

"Fascinating and surprising ... Athill is a wonderful letter writer - always aware of the need to entertain and beguile the reader ... Every page of this book shows that Athill's eye is as beady as ever" - Sunday Times

"Encounter again, the sheer joy of her brisk, wry and hugely energetic prose" - Independent

"These are vivid reports on life in late 20th-century Britain as experienced by a writer, editor, daughter, partner and pensioner with an extraordinarily "beady eye" on human relations and a phenomenal capacity for making the most of everything that comes her way ... She owes us nothing. She has given a very great deal" - Guardian

"She documents her dotage with affecting candour ... Athill is never remotely maudlin or self-pitying, and she describes beautifully those "lovely moments of pure being" that make it all worthwhile" - Financial Times

"A joy to read ... Grand, splendid and wonderfully entertaining, Athill makes you hope that letter-writing is not a lost art" - Metro

"Athill is wonderful - always aware of the need to entertain and beguile her reader ... Fascinating and surprising" - Sunday Times

"A superb description of a woman growing older without losing her sense of humour or enthusiasm for life" - Daily Telegraph

"Spirited sketches of OAP life... tackles the big questions through the small increments" - Guardian

"A revealing document... There's a disarming honesty in the detail of [her] daily struggles with domesticity and mortality" - Big Issue in the North

"The keenly intelligent letters between Athill and her friend, the American poet Edward Field, provide an intimate insight into the relationship between the two writers" - Good Homes