THE NANNY by MELISSA NATHAN

 THE NANNY

by

MELISSA NATHAN

THE BLURB:

When Jo Green takes a nannying job in London to escape her small-town routine, complicated family and perfect-on-paper boyfriend Shaun, culture shock doesn't even begin to describe it...

Dick and Vanessa Fitzgerald are the most incompatible pair since Tom and Jerry, and their children- glittery warrior pixie Cassandra, bloodthirsty Zak and shy little Tallulah- are downright mystifying. Suddenly village life terribly appealing.

Then, just as Jo's getting the hang of their designer lifestyle, the Fitzgerald's acquire a new lodger and suddenly she's sharing her nanny flat with the distractingly good-looking but inexplicably moody Josh. So when Shaun turns up things get even trickier...

THE REALITY:

I did worry about this one- a tome but about a light-and-trite subject? Hmmm. But I couldn't have been more wrong! This book is a real study in human relationships and a lesson that just because things appear a certain way on the surface, doesn't mean that appearances tell the whole truth- or even something approaching anywhere near it. It was also a good way for me to learn how to write about children and their foibles. I don't have children, nieces and nephews or godchildren, wasn't a big sister and, to be honest, don't have much to do with kids, and therefore know nothing about them. But this book certainly delivered me a lesson and an insight into their worlds, and I loved how they sometimes got whole sections of the book to themselves.

I can certainly relate to small-town backward ideals, as I myself had to escape them. I do like the way maratial relationships are explored; with both Jo's parents and Jo's employers, and I (spoiler alert!) managed to work out that it was Sheila Shaun would eventually end up with- they do come across as compatible.

But it was the humour that got to me throughout- there were several laugh out loud moments, especially when Vanessa enquires over the phone to Jo as to whether little Zak has been holding his willy today (it appears to be his self-comforting move) and her boss walks in and says, 'I hope that's not a client you're talking to!' And policeman Gerry's fancying of Jo, naming the four kids he thinks they'll be having and the treading in of shit by policeman Nick and spreading it over a crime scene (in fact poos feature more than once, which would impress lavatorial little moi!) I also enjoyed the Highgate references, and the allusion to how well-connected and monied people live, and how, at the end of the day, everyone is human; with foibles, and the problems that human beings suffer.

All in all, a nicely written novel.