An editor speaks

A COUPLE of months ago, I met a venerable agent for a drink in a small restaurant off Union Square. It was early in the evening, and we were the only people there. We had met to discuss an author the agent was representing ; our business concluded quickly enough, and then things got really interesting. The agent had been around for a long time and he had worked in New York when publishing had a bit more character than it has today.

The man opposite me had straddled generations and his stories were utterly fascinating. As they poured forth, they fleshed out the legendary figures who had built New York publishing - at present the biggest, liveliest, most powerful book publishing environment in the world. Finally, it was time to go, and I tore myself away reluctantly. Fortunately the agent is writing his memoirs and I will certainly get myself a copy, it is rare for people in publishing to write well about their world.

Diana Athill is one of those who has done so, and she has produced a work of considerable brilliance - it is eloquent, insightful, gossipy, penetrating and beautifully written. Athill writes about one of the most interesting periods in British publishing, during and shortly after World War II when a host of characters left a permanent mark on the publishing and writing environment. George Weidenfield (whose company now forms part of the Orion Group), Tom Rosenthal, Andre Deutsch, founder of one of the most famous literary publishing houses in London and, according to Athill who worked either with him or for him all her working life, "the most difficult man in London" and many others whose names are part of the publishing world's pantheon. The writers she describes include V.S. Naipaul, Jean Rhys, Mordecai Richler, Brian Moore, Gitta Sereny and a host of others.

I found Stet (Granta) completely engrossing and polished it off at a single sitting. But then the book is irresistible to anyone in the profession. Athill herself is legendary having discovered and published some of the world's greatest writers - Naipaul and Rhys, for example - but she was also the British publisher of Mailer and John Updike among others. I think this book is not merely a publisher's delight it would interest everyone interested in writers and the mad harum-scarum world of publishing. Athill is never afraid of calling a spade a spade, as a result of which this book gives you a rarely seen picture of some of the world's best known literary figures - we see George Werdenfield counting the number of female conquests he has made (50, by the time he encountered Athill who was not, incidentally, one of those whom he romanced) V.S. Naipaul, being difficult and anxious, Jean Rhys drinking herself into oblivion, Brian Moore being nice and then incredibly nasty and, of course, Andre Deutsch with whom she had a love-hate relationship all her life.

But this book is not about characters alone, although they dominate Stet. It is also about the craft of editing, the relationship between writers and their editors, and the entire process of how a book is chosen, edited and then sold. Given that Athill is blunt and unafraid to speak her mind, we have the sort of insights that I have rarely heard voiced.

Here, for example, is a precise, accurate picture of the relationship that exists between publishers and writers: "I would say that a friendship, properly speaking, between a publisher and a writer is well, not impossible, but rare.

"The relationship is less easy than I once supposed. Taking only those cases in which the publisher believes he has found a truly good writer, and is able to get real pleasure from his books, this is how it will go. The publisher will feel admiration for this man or woman, interest in his or her nature, concern for his or her welfare: all the makings of friendship. It is probably no exaggeration to say that he would feel honoured to be granted that person's friendship in return, because admiration for someone's work can excite strong feelings. But even so, part of the publisher's concern will be that of someone who has invested in a piece of property - how big a part depending on what kind of person the publisher is.

"In the writer the liking inspired by the publisher's enthusiasm may well be warm, but it will continue only if he thinks the publisher is doing a good job by making the book look pleasing and selling enough copies of it; and what the writer means by 'enough' is not always what the publisher means. Even if the publisher is doing remarkably well, he is still thinking of the book as one among many, and in terms of his experience of the market; while the writer is thinking in terms of the only book that matters in the world."

Stet (which is a term used in proof-reading for those who are mystified) is one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a very long time. If you are interested in the sort of things which get me going, I am sure you will like it, too.

DAVID DAVIDAR

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