Main content

Nina Stibbe

Michael Berkeley's guest is the writer Nina Stibbe.

Nina Stibbe was fifty when she first became a published writer with Love Nina, a collection of letters she wrote to her sister in the 1980s about her time working as a very inexperienced young nanny for Mary-Kay Wilmers, editor of the London Review of books.

She found herself running a home where Alan Bennett often appeared at suppertime and other famous neighbours and people would pop round - though Nina had often no idea who they were. Her affectionate, witty memoir won non-fiction Book of the Year in 2014 and was adapted by Nick Hornby into a Â鶹Éç TV series.

After nannying, Nina worked in publishing and then moved to Cornwall where she lived with her partner and children. Since the success of Love Nina, she has written six more books, four of them novels. Her latest, Went to London, Took the Dog, charts her first return to the capital for twenty years. It’s a break from domestic life back in Cornwall, or perhaps a fresh start altogether.

Nina's musical choices include music by Handel, Mozart, Brahms and Benjamin Clementine.

Available now

38 minutes

Last on

Sun 7 Jan 2024 12:00

Music Played

  • Johannes Brahms

    Piano Concerto No.2 in B flat (1st mvt)

    Performer: Lars Vogt. Orchestra: Royal Northern Sinfonia.
    • Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 & Handel Variations.
    • Ondine.
    • 1.
  • George Frideric Handel

    Eternal source of light divine (Birthday Ode for Queen Anne)

    Singer: Elin Manahan Thomas. Performer: David Blackadder. Orchestra: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Conductor: Harry Christophers.
    • Eternal Light.
    • HELIODOR.
    • 2.
  • Jake Thackray

    Remember Bethlehem

    • Jack in a Box: the EMI Recordings 1967 - 1976 Box Set.
    • EMI.
    • 14.
  • Frank Loesser

    Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat (Guys and Dolls)

    Singer: Stubby Kaye. Choir: Members of the Cast.
    • Legendary Broadway Musicals, Vol. 9.
    • Documents.
    • 14.
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Bei Männern (The Magic Flute)

    Singer: Elisabeth Norberg-Schulz. Singer: Wilfried Gahmlich. Conductor: Michael Halász. Orchestra: Budapest Failoni Chamber Orchestra. Choir: Hungarian Festival Choir.
    • Mozart: Zauberflöte (Die) (The Magic Flute).
    • Naxos.
    • 1.
  • Karl Jenkins

    Better is Peace from The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace

    Choir: Hertfordshire Chorus. Conductor: David Temple. Orchestra: The London Orchestra da Camera.
    • The Armed Man.
    • Signum Classics.
    • 13.
  • Paul McCartney

    Junk

    • McCartney.
    • Paul McCartney Archive Collection/MPL.
    • 6.
  • Benjamin Clementine

    Adios

    Performer: Benjamin Clementine.
    • At Least For Now.
    • Universal Music Division Barclay.
    • 4.

Broadcast

  • Sun 7 Jan 2024 12:00

What makes Boogie-woogie piano legend Jools Holland tick?

What makes Boogie-woogie piano legend Jools Holland tick?

For Private Passions, Jools Holland revealed his piano history to Michael Berkeley.

11 things we learned from Harry Enfield’s Private Passions

11 things we learned from Harry Enfield’s Private Passions

Harry doesn't usually give interviews – but he couldn't say no to Michael Berkeley.

Archive Unlocked: Two Decades of Private Passions

Michael Berkeley introduces memorable interviews from Private Passions' archives.

Podcast