A recommendation from Sally that I enjoyed. It is a sweet and frank account of the author's time working as a nanny for Mary Kay Wilmers, founder editor of the London Review of Books, and her two young sons. There's a nice fish-out-of-water feel as Nina, a Leicestershire girl who dropped out of school aged 14, finds herself among the London literati that made up Mary Kay's friends and neighbours. Alan Bennett is a regular dinner guest to the extent that he is generally considered part of the household, but rather than being in awe Nina simply thinks of him as the 'bloke who can't be bothered to cook his own tea'. Nina herself is kind, willing, a little naive, and eccentric (she detests wearing shoes and seems to spend most of her time whenever possible barefoot). She obviously formed firm friendships with the boys she looked after and her employer, as they ask her to stay on once she stops working and becomes a full-time student. Nina's particular genius is for conversations, the everyday vignettes of family life reproduced with faithful care and amusing detail. While I never exactly laughed-out-loud as the blurb promised, I did enjoy this book. A tribute to the enduring appeal of old-fashioned letter writing.
More in this Guardian Q&A here.