Audiobooks by Nina Stibbe

Nina Stibbe: Love, Nina, Man at the Helm & more: A BBC Radio Collection

"Three warm, witty works by Nina Stibbe, as heard on BBC Radio – plus bonus author interviews Nina Stibbe came to fame with Love, Nina, a memoir of her time working as a nanny in 1980s literary London. It won Non-Fiction Book of the Year at the 2014 National Book Awards, and was adapted into a hit BBC TV series. She has since written six more books, four of them novels, and a sparkling selection of her work is included here, alongside two fascinating interviews with Nina herself. Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life – Mary Poppins meets Adrian Mole in Nina Stibbe's hilarious letters, abridged for Book of the Week and read by Rebekah Staton. Writing to her sister Vic, young nanny Nina recounts her triumphs and trials, from exchanging cookery tips with Alan Bennett and spotting Samuel Beckett to romantic upsets, an uncomfortable theatre trip and the challenges of starting college. Man at the Helm – Lizzie, Amy and little Jack are worried about their mum. Recently divorced, Elizabeth has taken to drinking and compulsive playwrighting. Desperate to cheer her up, the kids embark on a madcap scheme to find her a new man. Dramatised with a full cast, this beguiling comic novel, set in 1970s Leicestershire, stars Amanda Hale, Eloise Webb, Fern Deacon and Ben Barker. ‘Delamere’s Meadow’ – Forced to find new grazing ground for their ponies, two sisters become embroiled in horsey intrigue with Mrs Luckie-Bryant… Amelia Bullmore reads Nina Stibbe’s first short story for BBC Radio. Saturday Live: Nina Stibbe – In conversation with Richard Coles and Aasmah Mir, the bestselling author discusses leaving Leicester for London, being a terrible nanny, writing uproarious letters about it and discovering her voice. Front Row: Nina Stibbe – Talking to Stig Abell, Nina Stibbe discusses the art of comic writing, from making award panel judges chuckle to finding the funny in serious novels and revealing the authors that make her laugh out loud. Text copyright Nina Stibbe 2013 (Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life), 2014 (Man at the Helm), 2016 (‘Delamere’s Meadow’) © 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Lt"

Nina Stibbe (Author), Amanda Hale, Amelia Bullmore, Ben Barker, Eloise Webb, Fern Deacon, Full Cast, Rebekah Staton (Narrator)

Audiobook

Went to London, Took the Dog: The Diary of a 60-Year-Old Runaway

"This brilliant audiobook is wittily and hilariously read by the author, Nina Stibbe. 'Painfully funny, but also deeply moving' - Meg Mason 'Vulnerable, sharp, funny, wise' - Bonnie Garmus 'A unique comic voice, endlessly funny' - David Nicholls Twenty years after leaving London, Nina Stibbe is back in town with her dog, Peggy. Together they take up lodging in the house of writer Deborah (Debby) Moggach in Camden for 'a year-long sabbatical'. It's a break from married life back in Cornwall, or even perhaps a fresh start altogether. Debby does not have many demands - only to water the garden, watch for toads, and defrost the odd pie - so Nina is free to explore the city she once called home. Between scrutinising her son's online dating developments, navigating the politics of the local pool, and taking detergent advice at the laundrette, this diary of a sixty-year-old runaway reunites us with the inimitable voice of Love, Nina, as the writer becomes, as she puts it, 'a proper adult' at last. As heard on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour 'An utter, UTTER treat! It was like spending time with my most clever, insightful, funny, FUNNY friend' - Marian Keyes 'No one writes heartbreak more hilariously, or hilarity more heartbreakingly' - Katherine Heiny 'So sharp and funny, blissfully gossipy, enviably well-observed . . . I loved it' - India Knight"

Nina Stibbe (Author), Nina Stibbe (Narrator)

Audiobook

One Day I Shall Astonish the World

"Brought to you by Penguin. Narrated by BAFTA winning actress Joanna Scanlan. From the prize-winning author of Reasons to be Cheerful comes a story about the ebb and flow of female friendship over half a lifetime Susan and Norma have been best friends for years, at first thrust together by force of circumstance (a job at The Pin Cushion, a haberdashery shop in 1990s Leicestershire) and then by force of character (neither being particularly inclined to make friends with anyone else). But now, thirty years later, faced with a husband seeking immortality and Norma out of reach on a wave of professional glory, Susan begins to wonder whether she has made the right choices about life, love, work, and, most importantly, friendship. Nina Stibbe's new novel is the story of the wonderful and sometimes surprising path of friendship: from its conspiratorial beginnings, along its irritating wrong turns, to its final gratifying destination. 'Nina Stibbe's writing is as brilliant as a cut diamond. One Day I Shall Astonish the World is a fantastic novel about friendship and love that resonates with everyone; it's gut wrenchingly funny and beautifully poignant. It was an honour to be telling Susan and Norma's story and I hope listeners enjoy the audiobook as much' Joanna Scanlan 'A true gift of a novel, I utterly adored it. For as long as I could make it last, the world just felt a bit nicer.' Meg Mason 'Stibbe turns out more perfect, sharp, unique sentences than anyone else' Caitlin Moran 'Stibbe has an extraordinary gift' Marian Keyes 'Nina Stibbe makes being funny look easy, but that's just because she's very, very good at it' Clare Chambers 'Nina Stibbe's very funny novels are full of charm, and her latest brilliantly captures the mordant humour of British suburban life' Evening Standard 'I'm not surprised to see that Stibbe's writing has been compared to Jane Austen's' Emma Healey 'I am already longing for Nina Stibbe's next book' Observer 'Stibbe is one of the all-time greats' Daisy Buchanan 'Clever and funny, it takes a sharp look at the intricacies of marriage, friendship, work and driving. As with all Stibbe's writing there is a pleasingly perfect balance of wisdom with jokes' Cathy Rentzenbrink 'Nina Stibbe is not just very funny but absolutely life-affirming' Jenny Colgan 'For beautifully funny and well-observed comic writing, Nina Stibbe is your go-to author. In her latest release, a tale of lifelong friendship between Susan and Norma, she explores the mistakes, rivalries and love we all experience in life' Stylist 'One of the great comic writers of our time' Irish Times © Nina Stibbe 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022"

Nina Stibbe (Author), Joanna Scanlan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Reasons to be Cheerful: Winner of the 2019 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction

"Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Reasons to Be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe. 18 year old Lizzie Vogel finds herself a new job in a dentist's surgery after answering a classified advert in the Leicester Mercury for a 'mature lady with a strong interest in dental issues'. Working for an eccentric dental surgeon who's obsessed with becoming a Freemason, Lizzie's life is uneventful, until Andy Nicolello turns up one day to deliver a crown. Lizzie seizes her chance to find love, and soon begins calling him her boyfriend even though they have never so much as kissed or even sat next to each other on the sofa. But Andy doesn't turn out to be quite what he seems... Reasons to be Cheerful is a painfully funny account of life as a hapless teenager in 1970s Leicestershire from the bestselling author of Love, Nina, Man at the Helm and Paradise Lodge."

Nina Stibbe (Author), Gemma Whelan (Narrator)

Audiobook

An Almost Perfect Christmas

"Penguin presents the audiobook edition of An Almost Perfect Christmas written and read by Nina Stibbe. 'I vowed from a young age never to cook a turkey and I never have - unless you count turkey mince (which you don't). I've seen the damage turkeys can do and the tyrannical hold they have over otherwise robust, rational people and my mother. My mother is not a foodie. But for as long as I can remember, once a year, she becomes possessed of a profound and desperate need to serve up a perfect roast turkey. Faced with a walk into the village though, she might think 'oh, fuck it' and decide to get a frozen one from Bejams on the 23rd and leave it to defrost in the downstairs toilet for not quite 48 hours.' From dry turkeys to Christmas pudding fires, from the perfect present for teacher to the risks and rewards of re-gifting, Nina Stibbe offers her inimitable wisdom and humour on the most wonderful time of the year."

Nina Stibbe (Author), Nina Stibbe (Narrator)

Audiobook

Paradise Lodge: Hilarity and pure escapism from a true British wit

"Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Paradise Lodge by Nina Stibbe, read by Helen Baxendale. This is the story of Lizzie Vogel, a 15 year old girl who finds herself working in an old people's home in the 1970s. The place is in chaos and it's not really a suitable job for a schoolgirl: she'd only gone for the job because it seemed too exhausting to commit to being a full-time girlfriend or a punk, and she doesn't realise there's a right and a wrong way to get someone out of a bath. Through a cast of wonderful characters, from the assertively shy Nurse who only communicates via little grunts to the very attractive son of the Chinese take away manager, Paradise Lodge is the story of being very young, and very old, and the laughter, and the tears, in between."

Nina Stibbe (Author), Helen Baxendale (Narrator)

Audiobook

Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life

"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"

Nina Stibbe (Author), Nina Stibbe (Narrator)

Audiobook