The Lady Magazine

22 January 2016

Dear Readers, ♦ Make: Breakfast Week runs from 24 to 30 January and we have some great recipes to try out and some top tips for a healthy start to the day (right). ♦ Win: An overnight stay for two at the Crowne Plaza Gerrards Cross Hotel in Buckinghamshire. How old do you have to be to stop worrying about being taken seriously? If you are Diana Athill, the answer, it would appear, is very old indeed. Her beautifully written memoir, Alive, Alive Oh!, is a starry mix of candid memories and vivid contemporary reflections on her 98 years so far, and her piece this week gloriously evokes her thoughts on the fashions that have shaped her. Sadly, she is not also our cover star, as she threatened to put a curse on the magazine if we used an impish, playful portrait of her taken by the artful and award-winning photographer, Rankin. It made her, she said, look too ‘devilish’. So we give you the utterly glorious Sheila Hancock instead and look forward to the day when Diana decides to retire from being so serious. To help, there are always the 65 reasons to retire we have come up with. You might have some other suggestions. Or you might just want to relax, and bathe your eyes in the serenity of Monet’s garden paintings. Whatever you choose, I hope you will also find time to be ‘devilish’! Until next week, best wishes ‘She threatened to put a curse on the magazine if we put her on the cover’ What’s new on lady.co.uk Sam Taylor,