The hidden secrets of Camden’s literary giants were laid bare on Monday as author Nina Stibbe gave a reading of her debut book, Love Nina, Dispatches from Family Life.
The material for the book was penned by the former nanny when she worked for London Review of Books editor Mary-Kay Wilmers in Gloucester Crescent during the 1980s.
Her book reproduces letters she sent home to her sister in Leicester describing her trials and triumphs and how she spent nearly every dinnertime conversing with playwright Alan Bennett.
At the reading, held at Primrose Hill Community Library, an audience heard she arrived in London knowing next to nothing about the literary world, but became surrounded by writers.
Theatre director Jonathan Miller, novelist Michael Frayn and writer Deborah Moggach all lived in the area and became familiar faces.
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