WHAT THE NANNY SAW by FIONA NEILL

WHAT THE NANNY SAW

BY FIONA NEILL

THE BLURB:-

Nanny required to take care of busy professional London family.

When penniless student Ali Sparrow answers Bryony and Nick Skinner's advertisement her life changes overnight.

She is capitulated into the privileged and excessive world of London's financial elite. At first everything is overwhelming- from twins who speak their own language to a teenage girl with weight issues, and a son almost Ali's own age. Then there is Bryony, who has one eye on her dazzling career and the other on Ali's failings.

When boom turns to bust and a scandal erupts that suggests something corrupt has been hatched behind the Skinners' front door, their private life is suddenly public news. And as Ali becomes indispensable, she realizes she's witness to things she probably shouldn't see.

But is she principled enough to keep the family's secrets when the press come prowling for the inside scoop? Or will she dish the dirt on the family who never saw her as anything other than part of the scenery?

THE REALITY:-

It took me a while to get into this book. Maybe I simply read it at a particularly bad time- I did not need to hear about the privileged lives of upper middle class professional people when I myself am struggling (my novel is far better than this- why I have not yet got an agent or publisher, I do not know). The way I see it, it's so much easier to 'get on' when you have the background, old school tie and contacts to move seamlessly forward into your chosen career. If you are working class, like me, you very often don't, and the big bad world can seem confusing and overwhelming. Mind you, one thing this class of people seem to have is an arrogance; a kind of expectation that getting a good job is a God-given right. I must say, I also share in that arrogance- I think that a person who has studied at further education level for four years or more, and who has applied themselves to getting a degree, or equivalent, is entitled to a good job. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean wandering in at director level on £60,000 a year; just that they should be fast tracked and not given the work of a sixteen or eighteen year old school leaver to do, and earn a better salary than said people, commensurate with their qualifications. To me, qualifications DO matter- I find the people who say that they don't tend not to have any.

Rant over, now back to the book. The main characters of Ali and Bryony did not particularly enthrall me and it's a sad indication that the dog, Leicester, was probably one of the more interesting characters, what with his dirty protests and his penchant for dumping in peoples' shoes (yes, the lavatorial always makes me laugh!) The twin boys and Izzy, the daughter with the eating disorder, were also good characters, but the person who made the best copy was Foy, the old boy who started and finished this novel. The book wasn't totally boring and there were some fun scenes that remind you that these people are only human, such as where Nick almost gets caught masturbating over computer porn by Ali and where Sophia throws beetroot soup over her husband and calls him a cunt (see, I told you I like the base!) The lives and stories of the other foreign nannies and housekeepers who work for these people were nicely documented and poignant.

It was interesting that the address of the house where Ali works was noted as being 94 Holland Park Crescent on page 6 and then 97 Holland Park Crescent on page 506. Continuity differences like these grate on my fucking nerves! Mistakes do happen- every time I re-read my novel I find a small discrepancy, but my excuse is that I haven't (yet) had the joy of having a professional editor work on my book, and I suppose it is 320,000 words long so you are going to find mistakes. But What The Nanny Saw is properly published and editorial teams need to sort things like this out.

I enjoyed learning about the workings of the financial world, via Nick's dealings, and think his downfall and subsequent investigation could have been expanded upon as it would have made interesting reading. The ending was a finishing point, as such, but a bit nondescript- it was so forgettable that I read it before going to bed but had totally forgotten it by the morning and had to re-read it. I can't even remember whether Ali did dish the dirt on her former employer, or not. I suppose you'd call this book a nice summer beach read, and I would give another book by this author a go, but with extreme trepidation. Unlike some, I'm all for giving people a chance or two.