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Nina, why is adolescence such a rich source of comedy? | 0:00:22 | 0:00:32 | |
I think it is because we make so many tiny little mistakes. | 0:00:32 | 0:00:35 | |
And we're very tolerant about those mistakes. | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
Maybe mistakes is too hard a word, but we look back, don't we? | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
We remember the funny little decisions that we made | 0:00:40 | 0:00:44 | |
and our reasoning. | 0:00:44 | 0:00:48 | |
I think we look back with affection at ourselves. | 0:00:48 | 0:00:55 | |
Because that's how we've learned about the peculiar | 0:00:55 | 0:00:57 | |
and absurd ways of the world? | 0:00:57 | 0:00:59 | |
Yes. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:00 | |
Yes, and I think that sort of innocence and the carefreeness, | 0:01:00 | 0:01:02 | |
when we're looking at other adolescents, when we are | 0:01:02 | 0:01:05 | |
reading about adolescence, somebody else's adolescence, | 0:01:05 | 0:01:07 | |
there are universal things, always. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:17 | |
Let's talk about the difference between now and then. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:19 | |
This is a story about the '70s, Paradise Lodge. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
An old people's home, that's what they were known as then. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:31 | |
One of the sources of comedy in the book, I think, | 0:01:37 | 0:01:40 | |
is this change in the language, the change in the euphemistic | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
language that is being used? | 0:01:42 | 0:01:43 | |
Yes, that is one of the things I remembered most strongly | 0:01:43 | 0:01:46 | |
when I looked back and tried to recreate it. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:48 | |
The way we skirted around certain things and the way | 0:01:48 | 0:01:51 | |
we were very open - and thoughtless, even - | 0:01:51 | 0:01:53 | |
about other things. | 0:01:53 | 0:02:03 | |
Like what? | 0:02:13 | 0:02:14 | |
For instance, when I first started at the old people's home, | 0:02:14 | 0:02:16 | |
as we called it, we called the residents "patients". | 0:02:16 | 0:02:18 | |
Even though some of them, really, were very able | 0:02:18 | 0:02:21 | |
and were using the place as a hotel, really. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:23 | |
You know, a long-stay hotel. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:24 | |
So we would call them patients. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:25 | |
We were taught absolutely never to say the word "toilet", | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
or "die", or mention any part of the human body. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:30 | |
There were just endless euphemisms that were used. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:32 | |
Which must have been difficult for staff maybe coming | 0:02:32 | 0:02:35 | |
from other cultures - which was possibly less, | 0:02:35 | 0:02:37 | |
then than it was now - who would be lost in this | 0:02:37 | 0:02:40 | |
minefield of language? | 0:02:40 | 0:02:41 | |
That's exactly what happened. | 0:02:41 | 0:02:42 | |
We had a very traditional manager who told us the golden rules | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
of working with the elderly. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:46 | |
It wasn't the same golden rules that we'd have | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
today about respect, that kind of thing. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:50 | |
You know, never swearing or using slang. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:52 | |
We used to lots of lovely slang in those days. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:55 | |
We would say things were "brillo". | 0:02:55 | 0:03:00 | |
We were told we mustn't say that. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:01 | |
We mustn't say "God", we had to say "gosh". | 0:03:01 | 0:03:05 | |
And then, halfway through my time at the nursing home, | 0:03:05 | 0:03:07 | |
as an auxiliary nurse, this new manager came from Malaysia. | 0:03:07 | 0:03:12 | |
She couldn't cope with it at all. | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
She didn't understand what on earth was going on half the time. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
She thought people were talking about their finances, | 0:03:19 | 0:03:21 | |
when they mentioned their tuppenny piece. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:23 | |
HE LAUGHS. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:24 | |
Sorry! | 0:03:24 | 0:03:25 | |
She would come and ask us, "What is this lady asking me?" | 0:03:25 | 0:03:29 | |
Then there was a total ban on it. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:32 | |
You obviously enjoy the whole business of the human comedy | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
in which we are all embroiled and trapped, I suppose. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:39 | |
It seems to me there is nowhere better than an enclosed setting | 0:03:39 | 0:03:42 | |
like that to see it playing out. | 0:03:42 | 0:03:45 | |
Everyone is stuck in their own place, and have to find | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
their relationships? | 0:03:48 | 0:03:52 | |
Yes, and I found that joyful to write. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:56 | |
My previous book was just a family stuck in a sort of a trap. | 0:03:56 | 0:04:00 | |
But it was a non-tangible thing. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:03 | |
The nursing home was wonderful and you've got the layers | 0:04:03 | 0:04:07 | |
of the staff, and visitors, then you've got the residents. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
Yeah, it was wonderful. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
Lizzie Vogel in this book, aged 15, is in the old people's home, | 0:04:12 | 0:04:19 | |
working. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:20 | |
In the previous book, she was coping at home | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
with very difficult things. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:26 | |
Rather depressing things - depression, alcoholism and so on. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:29 | |
And yet you made us laugh? | 0:04:29 | 0:04:33 | |
Yes. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:34 | |
Some readers found that book, Man at the Helm , hilarious and some | 0:04:34 | 0:04:41 | |
reviews said, it was just comedy gold, that kind of thing. | 0:04:41 | 0:04:45 | |
Other people said, you know, "I was frozen rigid with fear | 0:04:45 | 0:04:47 | |
and anxiety for you." | 0:04:47 | 0:04:51 | |
Or for the characters. | 0:04:51 | 0:04:55 | |
The line between them is probably quite thin? | 0:04:55 | 0:04:59 | |
Yes. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:01 | |
So, yes, it's a funny thing. | 0:05:01 | 0:05:02 | |
I was a little bit concerned with Paradise Lodge that now | 0:05:02 | 0:05:05 | |
Lizzie's older and more in control, that to lose the bleakness | 0:05:05 | 0:05:10 | |
might lose something. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
But it's a different kind of bleakness in Paradise Lodge, | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
because it's a kind of real bleakness. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:19 | |
You know, it's death. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:21 | |
I don't know how I do it, but I know that when I've seen it | 0:05:21 | 0:05:25 | |
done by authors myself, I've loved it. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
I've loved that coexistence of sadness and humour. | 0:05:28 | 0:05:31 | |
I like it a lot. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:34 | |
It's a cliched question to ask writers, if they're connected | 0:05:34 | 0:05:39 | |
with their principal characters. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:44 | |
But, in your case, is inescapable because it is pretty | 0:05:44 | 0:05:46 | |
obvious that there's an autobiographical | 0:05:46 | 0:05:48 | |
element, isn't it? | 0:05:48 | 0:05:49 | |
Yes. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
"Love, Nina" is a straightforward memoir. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:58 | |
It just is me, and it is absolutely true. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:00 | |
When I was writing Man at the Helm, which is very autobiographical, | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
I did get a little bit tangled up with being allowed to not be | 0:06:03 | 0:06:07 | |
truthful, even though it was a novel. | 0:06:07 | 0:06:08 | |
Have you got over that yet? | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
I'm working on it. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:13 | |
Yeah. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:14 | |
I have to. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:16 | |
It was very difficult. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:18 | |
With Man at the Helm, I would worry if I moved the vet's | 0:06:18 | 0:06:21 | |
surgery to a different part of the village. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:24 | |
I would think, "Somebody's going to complain about this." | 0:06:24 | 0:06:26 | |
You've got to pinch yourself and say, "Hang on, it's fiction." | 0:06:26 | 0:06:29 | |
Yes, exactly. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:31 | |
I'm having to work on that. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:33 | |
Autobiography has to be authentic and true. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
You can't mess around with that. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
But fiction can be both true and not true. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:45 | |
That's what I've struggled with, I think. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:46 | |
You must be very fond of Lizzie Vogel. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:48 | |
I love her. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:49 | |
What's she going to do next? | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
She's just about to pass her driving test. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:57 | |
How long will it take? | 0:06:57 | 0:06:58 | |
It might take her four attempts. | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
Is that autobiographical, or not? | 0:07:01 | 0:07:03 | |
It's autobiographical. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:04 | |
But then it gives her freedom to move on, and she does move on. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:09 | |
We'll have a similar bittersweet story. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:15 | |
The great thing a writer needs to do is to find a voice. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
Do you think you've now found the voice that will | 0:07:18 | 0:07:20 | |
carry you through? | 0:07:20 | 0:07:21 | |
It's a voice that I will want to write more. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:27 | |
But it might not be the only voice. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:31 | |
But it's been very fascinating about this voice, because Man | 0:07:31 | 0:07:36 | |
at the Helm was written a long time ago, not in that voice. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:39 | |
I'd written it sort of in a mix of Margaret Drabble and Edna O'Brien, | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
trying to be very clever, sort of lyrical. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:52 | |
And it wasn't until "Love, Nina" was published, | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
and people liked it, that I thought, actually, | 0:07:54 | 0:07:56 | |
I could write in that real voice and that might work. | 0:07:56 | 0:07:58 | |
I did, and they have liked it. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:00 | |
That's quite a joy. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
That's a thing I love to tell people when say to me, at literary events, | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
"I'm trying to write a book, what tips have you got?" | 0:08:06 | 0:08:09 | |
I say, calm down and write in your own voice. | 0:08:09 | 0:08:13 | |
At least try it. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:15 | |
It might just work. | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
Nina Stibbe, thank you very much. | 0:08:18 | 0:08:19 | |
Thank you. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:29 | |
Sunday | 0:08:31 | 0:08:31 | |
Sunday has | 0:08:31 | 0:08:31 | |
Sunday has brought | 0:08:31 | 0:08:32 | |
Sunday has brought with | 0:08:32 | 0:08:32 | |
Sunday has brought with it | 0:08:32 | 0:08:33 |