Stibbe - Love, Nina: a nanny writes home

And it was a nice life at 55 Gloucester Crescent. The household was made up of Mary-Kay Wilmers and her sons Sam, aged ten and a half who had some disabilities, and Will, aged nine. Also, there was Lucas the cat who was mostly out, and Alan Bennett, who lived across the street and often appeared at suppertime, and other neighbors, visitors and droppers-in. Except for missing my sister Victoria, I was settled and happy straightaway. Victoria stayed in Leicestershire, near where wed grown up, working and living in a nursing home. I missed telling her everything every night, however mundanethe explaining of who was who and what hed said and shed said and what that might mean.

Not that I very often wanted her opinion on anything, nor she mine, but wed grown accustomed to a nightly conflab. If thered been a convenient phone where she lived these letters would not have been written because Id have just rung her up. But there wasnt, so I wrote to her and she wrote back and there was something nice about the writing of and getting of letters, so we carried on. It occurs to me that if Vic had loved London as I did, my letters wouldnt have been so detailed, as shed have seen everything for herself on little trips. But she disliked London and came to stay only once or twice in all that time and spent those visits twitchy and longing to be home and not noticing the things I wanted her to notice. These are the letters I sent to Victoria during my first years in London, starting with my arrival at Gloucester Crescent.

The letters were often undated or partially dated. I have done my best to get them in the right order, but this was oddly tricky and I apologize if one or two events seem to occur slightly early or late. I apologize too for the things I got a bit wrong. Alan Bennett was never in Coronation Street for instance and Jonathan Miller has never been an opera singer as far as I know. As for spelling, grammar and so forth, apart from some fine tuning, these have been left as they were in the original letters. Id like to thank Mary-Kay Wilmers who, in spite of misgivings, agreed to this book being published.

Some names have been changed for obvious reasons, but most havent and I hope the cast will enjoy seeing themselves here. Nina Stibbe, 2013