Nina Stibbe

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Stibbe speaks to the British Library in 2022.

Nina Stibbe (born 1962) is a British writer born in Willoughby Waterleys and raised in Fleckney, Leicestershire. She became a nanny in the household of Mary-Kay Wilmers, editor of the London Review of Books. Her letters home to her sister became her first book, Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life, which was adapted into the 2016 BBC television series, Love, Nina.

Life and career[edit]

Born in 1962, Nina Stibbe grew up in rural Leicestershire, England, in a single-parent family.[1][2][3] In 1982, she left Leicestershire to work as the nanny in the household of Mary-Kay Wilmers for two years, at 55 Gloucester Crescent, London, looking after Mary-Kay's two children with Stephen Frears, Sam and Will.[4] At the time Gloucester Crescent was the home of a number of notable artistic and literary figures, including Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, Claire Tomalin, Karel Reisz, Deborah Moggach and Michael Frayn.[5] This literary environment was completely new to her. During this time, Nina wrote letters to her sister Victoria, back in Leicestershire, detailing her experiences as a nanny amongst the literary elite.[5] These letters became the basis for Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life, which was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year Award and won Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the 2014 National Book Awards.[4][6]

After leaving the Wilmers household, Stibbe studied Humanities at Thames Polytechnic. In 1990 she started work as a marketing assistant at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, then as a rep for the Open University Press, and finally for Routledge, becoming a commissioning editor.[7][8] In 2002 she moved to Cornwall with her partner, Mark Nunney, who she met while living on Gloucester Crescent, and their children, Eva and Alfred.[7][1]

In 2014, she published her first semi-autobiographical novel, Man at the Helm.[5] Stibbe had been attempting to write the novel for more than 30 years, having struggled to find her voice.[5]

In 2016, Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life was adapted by Nick Hornby for the BBC, as Love, Nina, starring Faye Marsay in the title role and Helena Bonham Carter.[9]

Reasons to be Cheerful won the 2019 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize,[10] making Stibbe the fourth woman to win the prize.[11] Man At The Helm had been shortlisted in 2015 and Paradise Lodge had been on the 2017 shortlist.[12] Two rare breed pigs were named Reasons and Cheerful after the novel's title.[12]

In 2020, Stibbe was awarded the Comedy Women in Print Prize for Reasons to be Cheerful, winning £3,000.[11]

Awards[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

  • Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life, London: Penguin, 2013
  • Man at the Helm, London: Penguin, 2014
  • Paradise Lodge, London: Penguin, 2016
  • An Almost Perfect Christmas, London: Penguin 2017
  • Reasons to be Cheerful, London: Penguin 2019
  • One Day I Shall Astonish the World, London: Penguin 2022
  • Went to London, Took the Dog: A Diary, London: Pan Macmillan, 2023

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Nina Stibbe interview: 'I always thought I'd be a writer, but I had no belief in myself'". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  2. ^ "Love, Nina: confessions of a north London nanny". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  3. ^ Clark, Interview by Alex (20 June 2015). "Nina Stibbe: 'I wish I'd made Alan Bennett a bit funnier. But to me he was a middle-aged man'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  4. ^ a b Kellaway, Kate (10 November 2013). "Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d "How Nina Stibbe found her voice". The Guardian. 21 April 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  6. ^ "Nina Stibbe". www.penguin.co.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  7. ^ a b "About Nina Stibbe | Nina Stibbe". www.ninastibbe.com. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  8. ^ "Nina Stibbe: Interview | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  9. ^ "BBC - Love, Nina - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  10. ^ a b "Nina Stibbe wins 2019 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction". The Irish Times. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  11. ^ a b c Flood, Alison (14 September 2020). "'Men still say women aren't funny': Nina Stibbe wins Comedy women in print prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  12. ^ a b "Wodehouse Prize: Nina Stibbe's Reasons To Be Cheerful wins". BBC News. 8 May 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  13. ^ "Previous Winners". CWIP. Retrieved 28 March 2021.

External links[edit]

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