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Love, Nina: A Nanny Writes Home, by Nina Stibbe
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"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
In 1982, 20-year-old Nina Stibbe moved to London to work as a nanny to two opinionated and lively young boys. In frequent letters home to her sister, Nina described her trials and triumphs: there's a cat nobody likes, suppertime visits from a famous local playwright, a mysteriously unpaid milk bill, and repeated misadventures parking the family car. Dinner table discussions cover the gamut, from the greats of English literature, to swearing in German, to sexually transmitted diseases. There's no end to what Nina can learn from these boys (rude words) and their broad-minded mother (the who's who of literary London).
A charming, hilarious, sweetly inspiring celebration of bad food and good company, Love, Nina makes a young woman's adventures in a new world come alive.
- Sales Rank: #110549 in Books
- Published on: 2014-11-04
- Released on: 2014-11-04
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.25" h x 1.00" w x 5.50" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 352 pages
From Booklist
*Starred Review* With a who’s who at the beginning that ranges from film director Stephen Frears to Maxwell, the author’s “ex-pony,” you might guess this is not your typical memoir. Not only that, but it comprises the tuneful, descriptive letters Nina wrote in the 1980s, while she tried her hand at nannying in London, to her sister, Vic, who stayed basically at home, near Leicestershire, England. The nannied children were young Sam and Will Frears—their arty, daffy children’s conversations fill the pages—living with their sharp, blunt mother, Mary-Kay Wilmers, deputy editor of the London Review of Books. Nina herself, then just 20 and new to the task of being a nanny, was a lover of London and quite the observer, documenting for her sister back home the who, the when, and her full-blown, clever, open-eyed take on the what of life at the Wilmers-Frears. Stibbe notes that nannying is “not like a job really, just like living in someone else’s life,” but what a funny, artist-filled life she lived, and how well she watched and participated. This is an offbeat paean to families, real and cobbled-together, to sisters and siblings, and to communicating with love. It’s also a rare and wholly delectable epistolary slice of life. --Eloise Kinney
Review
"I adored this book, and I could quote from it forever. It's real, odd, life-affirming, sharp, loving...and I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud so frequently while reading."―Nick Hornby, The Believer
"[Love, Nina is] observant, funny, terse, at times a bit rude. It affords a glimpse into a rarefied London social and literary milieu...These letters are winning from the start...we simply like being in Ms. Stibbe's company."―Dwight Garner, The New York Times
"I have never laughed so hard reading a book. Nina Stibbe's recollections of life as a London nanny are both hilarious and heartwarming."―J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Maine and The Engagements
"I must MOST EARNESTLY recommend Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe. It's the most piss-funny thing I've read all year. I can't remember a book since Adrian Mole that so brilliantly, drily nailed day-to-day life in BRILLIANT, faux-naive prose."―Caitlin Moran, author of How to Build a Girl
"Nina Stibbe is the funniest new writer to arrive in years. LOVE, NINA is a memoir so warm, so witty and so wise, it's like finding the friend you always deserved."―Andrew O'Hagan, author of Be Near Me and Missing
"What a funny, artist-filled life she lived, and how well she watched and participated. This is an offbeat paean to families, real and cobbled-together, to sisters and siblings, and to communicating with love. It's also a rare and delectable epistolary slice of life."―Booklist (starred review)
"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
"You'll find yourself laughing out loud but also touched by the book's depiction of family as it should be: people bound not just by blood but by shared affinities, humor and unfailing interest in hearing the answer to the question, 'How was your day?'"―People
"Enchanting . . . a glimpse into the domestic life of a fascinating family."―The Wall Street Journal
About the Author
Nina Stibbe, after leaving her work as a nanny and attending university, worked in publishing. She now lives in Cornwall with her husband and their two children.
Most helpful customer reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
Quirky and charming
By Kindles & Wine Book Blog
REVIEWED BY LAURA
This is a quirky and charming little book, composed entirely of Nina Stibbe's letters to her sister Victoria after she moved to London to be a nanny. Nina's letters aren't really like any letters I've read before, and they're very unlike letters I would write. Nina is hilarious and she has a keen ear for dialogue. She observes the most unusual things and manages to make the most mundane tasks funny (see excerpt below regarding laundering pillows). Throughout the book, she includes lots of little mini-dialogues between her and Mary-Kay (MK, her boss) and Sam and Will (her charges). For example:
MK: What are these?
Me: Pillows.
MK: Yes, but why have I got them? Where are my usual ones?
Me: Sam's probably got your usual ones.
MK: So what are these?
Me: I think they might be the ones I laundered.
MK: Laundered?
Me: Took to the launderette.
MK: Are they washable?
Me: Not as such, but it was kill or cure.
MK: It was kill.
To find that little vignette I literally just turned to a random page in the book. I find exchanges like this so charming because I would never think to write about a conversation like that in a letter, but it so perfectly illustrates the things that make up daily life. Her writing also made me really want to be a fly on the wall in that house so I could listen in on the razor sharp wit.
I should tell you that Mary-Kay is Mary-Kay Wilmers, who at that time was the editor of the London Review of Books. She is friends with several of the literary/cultural elite of London in the 1980s--Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, Claire Tomalin--most of whom stop by the house regularly. (The only one of those I had heard of before reading the book was Alan Bennett, because of his recent book The Uncommon Reader.) So this isn't just any household that Nina has found herself in--she ends up rubbing elbows with some pretty famous people.
This is a fairly breezy read--there's not much plot, per se, although I did become invested in the boys and Mary-Kay and I couldn't help but root for Nina as she began studying at university. But it's not really a page turner...it's more of a quiet and thoughtful book, perfect if you don't want anything too heavy or just have a few minutes to read (the letters are short, so it's easy to read a few in a short time). You could say it is "light reading" at its best.
The book has gotten quite a few absolutely glowing reviews, and while I liked it and enjoyed reading it, I didn't LOVE it. There is a lot in this book that feels like "inside baseball," meaning that I bet this book is infinitely more fun to read if you happen to have come of age in England in the 1980s. There are so many cultural and political references, as well as the ins and outs of living in England during that time, that I just couldn't fully appreciate (not having come of age in England in the 1980s).
I always get a little sad when I read these kinds of books because nobody seems to write letters anymore, do they? (It's all texting now, isn't it?) It's too bad, because letters are so fun...and it was fun to look back at how the letters included in this book told the story of Nina and her life through small glimpses. Let's just say I don't think anyone will ever compile a book of text messages...
BOTTOM LINE
Recommended for light and fun reading, especially if you happen to have grown up in England in the 1980s. I think this would be a great beach read or a book to read when you want something that you can dip into and out of easily. Parts are very, very funny and made me want to live with Mary-Kay, Sam, Will, and Nina.
RATING: B
Note: I received a review copy of this title courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Nina's descriptions are simple yet accurate, and readers feel like a fly on the wall
By Bookreporter
Nina Stibbe moves to an upscale neighborhood in North London to become a nanny to Mary-Kay Wilmers, a single mother and editor of London Review of Books. She writes home to her sister, Victoria, "Being a nanny is great. Not like a job really. Just like living in someone else's life." Her charges are Mary-Kay's two sons, Sam and Will. Nine-year-old Will is the worrier; it’s 1982, and he’s concerned about nuclear war. Sam is 10 � and has some physical disabilities that aren't named. Appearing to take his condition in stride most of the time, he’s a keen observer who seems wise beyond his years.
The neighborhood is a Who's Who of literary and creative types. Alan Bennett, playwright and actor, drops in often, especially at meal time. Nina wrote Victoria that he starred in the long-running and very popular British soap opera “Coronation Street,” but she is incorrect. Jonathan Miller, actor and opera director, is another neighbor whose occupation Nina gets wrong. Eventually, she sorts it all out and comes to really enjoy being in the company of this eclectic group of folks. Her observations and descriptions of the friends and neighbors who come and go from the Wilmers household are fresh and unedited. She writes that Mary-Kay, Sam and William all have basin (bowl) haircuts, Mary-Kay often cusses, and privileged folks don't talk about money. She introduces her charges to Toffos, which Will decides are "just naked Rolos," and describes the men Mary-Kay dates.
Nina's letters to Victoria are full of opinions and bits of conversations about daily life. Nina dyes her plimsoles (sneakers) a greeny-blue in the washer, and then all the laundry seems to be a bit greeny-bluish. She is sent to the Millers to borrow a saw to trim the trunk of the Christmas tree, and the family misplaces it. Bottles of milk arrive regularly on their doorstep, but never a milk bill, even though Mary-Kay reminds the milkman. Meal-time conversations might be about the digestive system, pie fillings, a neighbor's large behind, or how to cuss in German. Children the ages of Sam and Will are keen observers of human nature, and their running commentaries are usually spot-on.
This peek into the domestic life of Mary-Kay, her children and their neighbors is quite interesting. Nina's descriptions are simple yet accurate, and readers feel like a fly on the wall. It would be interesting to dine with the family, even though Nina puts tinned tomatoes in the Hunter's Stew, which Alan Bennett considers a mistake.
Reviewed by Carole Turner
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
The Nanny Letters
By takingadayoff
When Nina Stibbe applied for a job as nanny to a family in Bloomsbury, she was twenty years old, had never lived in London, and was unaware of the literary celebrities who would soon populate her world.
This was in the early 1980s and she was used to having long, detailed chats with her sister back home every night after work. Since her sister didn't have convenient access to a phone, Nina wrote her frequent letters, telling her about the family she was living with, the people who visited, tidbits about her new London neighborhood.
Her sister found the letters recently and as unlikely as it all seems, now they're a book. The book is in two parts, the first part is Nina's letters to sister Victoria as she settles in with the Mary Kay and her sons Sam and Will, ages nine and ten. Mary Kay Wilmers is an editor (and founder) at The London Review of Books. Her ex-husband and the father of the boys is Stephen Frears, a movie director. Alan Bennett lives just across the street and is over for dinner most evenings. Jonathan Miller lives down a few doors, close enough to borrow things from. Michael Frayn, playwright, is a neighbor, as is John Lahr, American theater critic, and a host of others. Some celebrities only pop in for cameo appearance, such as Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson.
The second part of the book consists of the letters Nina sent to Victoria from university. There's an overlap, as Nina was no longer the nanny, but Mary Kay invited her to stay at the house and Nina continued to help out but on a more casual basis. I found the university adventures less interesting than the Bloomsbury gossip.
Nina was a great letter writer, she included lots of detail, including plenty of snippets of conversation that give you a vivid picture of what the people in her life were like. She was hardly star struck, in fact her first letters to her sister describe Alan Bennett as being an actor in a soap opera and Jonathan Miller as being an opera singer.
A fun, quick trip back to the eighties for fans of the London book and theater crowd.
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