Nina Stibbe

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Stibbe speaks to the British Library in 2022. Nina Stibbe at the British Library.jpg
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 .

Contents

Life and career

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 (2013), which was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year 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. [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

Bibliography

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References

  1. 1 2 "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. 1 2 Kellaway, Kate (10 November 2013). "Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe – review". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "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. 1 2 "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. 1 2 "Nina Stibbe wins 2019 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction". The Irish Times. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  11. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 "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.