Yesterday my friend and neighbour who BookCrosses as Blower offered me my choice from a bag of books she'd been given by another friend.
I don't know why I chose this as one of the four I brought home with me, except that I try to read at least two nonfictions a month so am always on the look-out for ones I might find interesting, because I've previously enjoyed the letter format and Nick Hornby's front cover endorsement seemed promising!

When Nina left home in 1982, age 20, to become a nanny in London, she wrote home regularly to her sister Victoria who stayed in Leicestershire - and now her letters have been published. It's just as well she wasn't writing emails as the rest of the world would have missed a gem! They're hilarious! And bring back many memories of how life might have been then ....
When Alan Bennett lives across the road and regularly eats with the family, you borrow tools from Jonathan Miller along the street, your closest friend works for Claire Tomalin, and Deborah Moggach looks over your friend's poetry, to mention just a few examples, it's not really name-dropping - it's just how she lived at the time ...
Great fun! Highly entertaining!
To be returned to Blower but on loan to my non-BookCrossing friend (JR) in the meantime!

Returned by JR who loved it - I knew she would! She made notes in her reading journal of some of the particularly amusing bits that appealed to her - and googled Nina etc to learn more about her and her charges in later life .... Very impressed!
Now reserved for the next time I see Blower :-)

Back to blower with my strong recommendation that she read it! Happy Holidays!

Over a million people around the world give their books a unique BookCrossing IDentity number (BCID) before sending them out to find new readers. Since the start of the scheme in April 2001 more than ten million such books have been put into circulation. This is one of them!

Our hope is that we can track the progress of our books once they've left our hands - and that's possible if finders like you visit the website, key in the BCID and leave a comment, however long or short. It's fun, it doesn't have to cost anything, although the site always appreciates donations towards running costs, and you can remain anonymous if you wish. You don't have to join but if you do you'll be able to number and track your own books!

This book has bounced back and forth between myself and my friend and neighbour Nu-Knees. It is now back with me and waiting to travel on.
I expect it could be classed as an autobiography as she relates about five years of her life while living in London as a nanny. This is done through the letters she wrote to her sister.
She lived in a very 'literary environment' but seemed to accept it all as normal.
I enjoyed the read and found the family life strange and a bit amusing but sadly not so 'laugh out loud' as the reviews claim.
Still it is always good to try something different.

Left on the bookshelf in COGS, Knaresborough