Love, Nina

Despatches from Family Life

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Love, Nina

By: Nina Stibbe

Narrated by: Nina Stibbe

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About this listen

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS POPULAR NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2014

A laugh-out-loud true story of the trials and tribulations of being a live-in nanny in 1980s London and inspired a major TV series starring Helena Bonham Carter.

*****

In 1982 Nina Stibbe, a 20-year-old from Leicester, moved to London to work as a nanny for a very particular family. It was a perfect match: Nina had no idea how to cook, look after children or who the weirdos were who called round. And the family, busy discussing such arcane subjects as how to swear in German or the merits (or otherwise) of turkey mince, were delighted by her lack of skills.

Love, Nina is the collection of letters she wrote home gloriously describing her 'domestic' life, the unpredictable houseguests and the cat everyone loved to hate.

*****

'I adored this book and could quote from it forever' Nick Hornby

'Funny and sharp: no book this year has made me laugh more' John Lanchester, Guardian

'The funniest book I've read in ages' Sunday Times

'An unassuming comic genius' Independent

Letters & Correspondence

Literary History & Criticism

Memoirs, Diaries & Correspondence

Funny

Feel-Good

Heartfelt

Witty

England

Letters & Correspondence Literary History & Criticism Memoirs, Diaries & Correspondence Funny Feel-Good Heartfelt Witty England

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Critic reviews

I loved this book. What a beady eye she has for domestic life, and how deliciously fresh and funny she is - a real discovery. (Deborah Moggach, author of 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel')

The funniest new writer to arrive in years (Andrew O'Hagan)

Breezy, sophisticated, hilarious, rude and aching with sweetness: Love, Nina might be the most charming book I've ever read (Maria Semple, author of 'Where’d You Go, Bernadette')

Adrian Mole meets Mary Poppins mashed up in literary north London . . . Enormous fun

Most relevant

If you could sum up Love, Nina in three words, what would they be?

Gorgeous, witty, warm. HILARIOUS, actually.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Love, Nina?

The book is lots of little incidences; funny, dry, bittersweet, ironic, presented as letters to the author's sister, so it's hard to chose one from the hundreds of lovely, chuckley, sniggery anecdotes. One of my favourite recurring episodes though is when Nina describes goings on at Thames Polytechnic to Mary-Kay, the mother of the family she is a nanny for, and Mary-Kay's reactions. Always a mixture in varying proportions of the shocking, hilarious and banal - and Mary-Kay's responses are glorious. Because the stories take the form of letters to NS's sister, her tone is so personal, candid and familiar that I feel like I was sitting at the table with them for years myself.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Anything where she describes what she cooks for the family she works for, the conspiratorial tone is heightened even more here and her role at that time (and how she copes with it) are in sharp relief: caring, naive, clever, inventive.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Mary-Kay offers for Nina to move back into No. 55, and Nina accepts - it lasted all of 30 seconds within the actual audiobook, but it forms a tiny explosion of joy and acceptance so much so that you realise the author's relationship with Mary-Kay before this point was always leading up to this. Such a British little blip of poignancy and warm-and-fuzziness.

Any additional comments?

Definitely, definitely, buy and listen to this, as your very next audiobook. Nina Stibbe is a tremendous author and narrator, and this is one of those books that is so hilarious and brilliant that afterwards you'll know it will be difficult to top it, and your next listen could only hope to be a disappointment in comparison. YOU. WILL. LOVE. THIS. BOOK. I promise.