Jenny Diski
A writer of unsparing clarity, she transformed her turbulent life and sharp observations into profound essays and memoirs that refused easy comfort.
1947–2016 (age 69)·English writer·Birthday: July 8·Baby Boomers
Biography
Jenny Diski's life and work were forged in difficulty. Estranged from her parents, she spent her teenage years in psychiatric institutions before being taken in, complexly, by the novelist Doris Lessing. This unstable beginning informed everything she wrote. Her novels were intellectually playful and darkly comic, but she found her most powerful voice in non-fiction. For the London Review of Books, she wrote long, meandering essays on everything from Antarctica to shopping malls, all filtered through her singular, skeptical mind. Her later memoirs, like 'Skating to Antarctica' and 'In Gratitude,' which detailed her relationship with Lessing and her own terminal cancer diagnosis, were masterpieces of unsentimental self-examination. Diski wrote with a cool, precise detachment about the most chaotic emotional terrain, creating a body of work that is less about confession than about the rigorous, and often funny, process of thinking one's way through a life.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Jenny was born in 1947, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Jenny Was Born
The biggest hits of 1947
#1 Movie
The Egg and I
Best Picture
Gentleman's Agreement
Jenny's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1947Born
India gains independence; the Dead Sea Scrolls found
Gas: $0.23/galHome: $6,600Min wage: $0.40/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Near You" — Francis CraigBest Picture: Gentleman's Agreement
1952Started school
Queen Elizabeth II ascends the throne
Gas: $0.27/galHome: $8,350Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Harry S. Truman"Blue Tango" — Leroy AndersonBest Picture: The Greatest Show on Earth
1960Became a teenager
Kennedy-Nixon debates become first televised presidential debates
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $11,900Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Theme from A Summer Place" — Percy FaithBest Picture: The Apartment
1963Could drive
JFK assassinated in Dallas; Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $13,100Min wage: $1.25/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"Sugar Shack" — Jimmy Gilmer & The FireballsBest Picture: Tom Jones
1965Could vote
US sends combat troops to Vietnam
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $13,600Min wage: $1.25/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" — The Rolling StonesBest Picture: The Sound of Music
1968Turned 21
Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy assassinated
Gas: $0.34/galHome: $14,950Min wage: $1.60/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"Hey Jude" — The BeatlesBest Picture: Oliver!
1977Turned 30
Star Wars premieres; Elvis dies
Gas: $0.62/galHome: $31,800Min wage: $2.30/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"Tonight's the Night" — Rod StewartBest Picture: Annie Hall
1987Turned 40
Black Monday stock market crash
Gas: $0.90/galHome: $72,400Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Walk Like an Egyptian" — The BanglesBest Picture: The Last Emperor
1997Turned 50
Princess Diana dies in Paris car crash; Harry Potter published
Gas: $1.23/galHome: $104,100Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: Bill Clinton"Candle in the Wind 1997" — Elton JohnBest Picture: Titanic
2007Turned 60
iPhone released; Great Recession begins
Gas: $2.80/galHome: $172,600Min wage: $5.85/hrPresident: George W. Bush"Irreplaceable" — BeyonceBest Picture: No Country for Old Men
2016Died at 69
Donald Trump elected president; Brexit vote
Gas: $2.14/galHome: $181,700Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Love Yourself" — Justin BieberBest Picture: Moonlight
Key Achievements
- Authored the travel memoir 'Stranger on a Train,' which won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award in 2003.
- Was a longtime, influential contributor to the London Review of Books, known for her distinctive essay style.
- Wrote a series of critically acclaimed memoirs, including 'Skating to Antarctica' and 'The Sixties.'
- Published over a dozen novels and non-fiction books exploring psychology, travel, and autobiography.
Did You Know?
She lived with the author Doris Lessing as a teenager after a troubled childhood and wrote about their fraught relationship.
She was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in 2014 and chronicled her experience in a celebrated series of essays.
She chose the title for her memoir 'In Gratitude' with deep irony regarding her feelings about being 'rescued.'
She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL).
“I’m not interested in myself, but in my mind. I’m the laboratory in which I work.”
