Make Believe

A True Story

Diana Athill (Y), Patrick French

$22.99

Paperback

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English

Granta Books
02 August 2022

Autobiography: literary; Black & Asian studies

Following a turbulent upbringing, a history of addiction and a committal to an asylum, the teachings of Malcolm X changed Hakim Jamal's life. He became an eloquent, rousing spokesperson for the Nation of Islam movement, moved to London, began a relationship with Gale Benson - the daughter of a British MP - and published a book about Malcolm X, with Diana Athill. Before long, however, he began behaving erratically again, and believed himself to be God.

Raw and unflinching, Make Believe is a memoir of friendship, love, mania and injustice. A witness to his struggles, Athill reflects on her relationship with Hakim with characteristic empathy and candour, whilst charting the events that led to Gale's - and not long after, Hakim's - murder.

'Unnervingly candid, cooly harrowing, redolent of the hectic late Sixties and early Seventies but oddly suggestive of the tortuous depths that all relationships hold' - John Updike 'A memoir with the immediacy and grip of a good novel' - Hilary Mantel

By: Diana Athill (Y)
Introduction by: Patrick French
Imprint: Granta Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 9mm
Weight: 119g
ISBN: 9781783787449
ISBN 10: 1783787449
Pages: 160
Publication Date: 02 August 2022
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

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. She is the author of eight volumes of memoirs - Stet, Instead of a Letter, After a Funeral, Yesterday Morning, Make Believe, Somewhere Towards the End, Alive, Alive Oh!, A Florence Diary - a collection of letters, Instead of a Book, and a novel, Don't Look At Me Like That, all published by Granta, as well as a collection of short stories, Midsummer Night in the Workhouse (Persephone Books). 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.

Reviews for Make Believe: A True Story

Unnervingly candid, cooly harrowing, redolent of the hectic late Sixties and early Seventies but oddly suggestive of the tortuous depths that all relationships hold -- John Updike A memoir with the immediacy and grip of a good novel -- Hilary Mantel