Audiobooks by Nina Stibbe

Went to London, Took the Dog: A Diary: From the prize-winning author of Love, Nina

'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. '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

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

A delightful story of growing up, getting old, and every step in between, from the acclaimed author of Man at the Helm and Love, Nina. After succeeding in her quest to help her unconventional mother find a new "man at the helm," fifteen-year-old Lizzie Vogel simply wants to be a normal teenager. Just when it looks as if things have settled down, her mother goes and has another baby. On top of that, Lizzie's best friend has deserted her for the punk craze, which Lizzie finds too exhausting to commit to herself. But Lizzie soon gets more commitment than she bargained for when she takes a job as a junior nurse at Paradise Lodge, a ramshackle refuge for the elderly that has seen better days. It's no place for a teenager, much less one with as little experience emptying a bedpan as Lizzie. What begins as away to avoid school and earn some spending money (for the finer things in life, like real coffee and beer shampoo) quickly turns into the education of a lifetime. Lizzie encounters a colorful cast of eccentric characters--including a nurse determined to turn one of the patients into a husband (and a retirement plan); an efficient but clueless nun trying to modernize the place; and Lizzie's unlikely first love--who become her surrogate family. When Paradise Lodge faces a crisis in the form of a rival nursing home with enough amenities to make even the comatose jealous, Lizzie must find a way to save her job before she loses the only place she's ever felt she belongs. A hilarious and heartfelt coming-of-age tale, Paradise Lodge proves that it's never too early--or too late--to grow up.

Nina Stibbe (Author), Helen Baxendale (Narrator)

Audiobook

Paradise Lodge

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: A Nanny Writes Home

"Breezy, sophisticated, hilarious, rude and aching with sweetness: LOVE, NINA might be the most charming book I've ever read." --Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette In 1982, 20-year-old Nina Stibbe moved to London to work as a nanny to two opinionated and lively young boys. In frequent letters home to her sister, Nina described her trials and triumphs: there's a cat nobody likes, suppertime visits from a famous local playwright, a mysteriously unpaid milk bill, and repeated misadventures parking the family car. Dinner table discussions cover the gamut, from the greats of English literature, to swearing in German, to sexually transmitted diseases. There's no end to what Nina can learn from these boys (rude words) and their broad-minded mother (the who's who of literary London). A charming, hilarious, sweetly inspiring celebration of bad food and good company, Love, Nina makes a young woman's adventures in a new world come alive.

Nina Stibbe (Author), Nina Stibbe (Narrator)

Audiobook

Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life

* * * WINNER OF THE 2014 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS POPULAR NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR * * * 'I adored this book, and I could quote from it forever. It's real, odd, life-affirming, sharp, loving, and contains more than one reference to Arsenal FC' Nick Hornby,The Believer 'Adrian Mole meets Mary Poppins mashed up in literary north London . . . Enormous fun' Bookseller 'What a beady eye she has for domestic life, and how deliciously fresh and funny she is' Deborah Moggach, author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Nina Stibbe's Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life is the laugh-out-loud story of the trials and tribulations of a very particular family. In the 1980s Nina Stibbe wrote letters home to her sister in Leicester describing her trials and triumphs as a nanny to a London family. There's a cat nobody likes, a visiting dog called Ted Hughes (Ted for short) and suppertime visits from a local playwright. Not to mention the two boys, their favourite football teams, and rude words, a very broad-minded mother and assorted nice chairs. From the mystery of the unpaid milk bill and the avoidance of nuclear war to mealtime discussions on pie filler, the greats of English literature, swearing in German and sexually transmitted diseases, Love, Nina is a wonderful celebration of bad food, good company and the relative merits of Thomas Hardy and Enid Blyton. 'Breezy, sophisticated, hilarious, rude and aching with sweetness: Love, Nina might be the most charming book I've ever read' Maria Semple, author of 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette' 'Nina Stibbe is the funniest new writer to arrive in years. Love, Nina is her first book - a memoir so warm, so witty and so wise, it's like finding the friend you always deserved' Andrew O'Hagan At the age of 20 Nina Stibbe moved from Leicestershire to London to become a nanny. Later she studied at Thames Polytechnic and worked in publishing. In 2014 her debut novel Man at the Helm was published. Love, Nina won the 2014 National Book Awards for Popular Non-Fiction Book of the Year. She now lives in Cornwall with her partner and children.

Nina Stibbe (Author), Nina Stibbe (Narrator)

Audiobook