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