Jenny Diski dead: Renowned English author dies of cancer aged 68

Diski documented her experience of living with cancer in a whimsical and honest serialised column

Fellow writers have paid Tribute to Diski’s life of literary achievements on Twitter (Getty Images)

Jenny Diski, the renowned English author who wrote a serialised column about her cancer, has died at the age of 68.

Her partner Ian Patterson announced the news on Twitter this morning. “Sad news. My darling Jenny Diski died early this morning," he wrote.

The prolific writer is known for her novels, non-fiction articles, short stories, memoirs, and travelogues. Publishing a total of 18 novels in her lengthy career, Diski was also a regular contributor to the London Review of Books.

A week ago, Diski published In Gratitude, a memoir about her experience of living with terminal cancer. Diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in August 2014, Diski was given “two or three years’ to live”. Just one month later, she began writing a serialised diary in LRB documenting her experience of cancer.

Fellow writers have paid Tribute to Diski’s lifetime of literary achievements and enduring legacy on Twitter.

"Farewell to my dear cousin, the very lovely Jenny Diski. Kind, funny, encourage and a truly brilliant writer," wrote Jay Rayner.

"RIP Jenny Diski, great writer and my favourite essayist. Those @LRB are immortal," added Agata Pyzik.

When Diski first learned she had cancer, her initial reaction was one of embarrassment, as the usual responses felt heavily clichéd and scripted. As she wrote in her column, “The flood of embarrassment, much more powerful than alarm or fear, that engulfed and mortified me at finding myself set firmly on that particular well-travelled road. I am and have always been embarrassed by all social rituals that require me to participate in a predetermined script”.

Back in 2003, Diski won the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award for her novel Stranger on a Train: Daydreaming and Smoking around America With Interruptions.

Born in London in 1947, Diski lived with British writer Doris Lessing for four years and went on to remain friends with her for a total of fifty. Leaving school without taking her A-levels, Diski spent many of her formative years as a patient in various psychiatric hospitals. She later trained as a teacher, working in a Hackney comprehensive and setting up a free school, before going on to embark on a fruitful career in writing.

Diski's partner is a translator and director of English Studies at Queens’ College in Cambridge - she routinely refers to him as “the Poet” in her writings.