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    What the Nanny Saw
    What the Nanny Saw
    What the Nanny Saw
    Audiobook15 hours

    What the Nanny Saw

    Written by Fiona Neill

    Narrated by Alison Larkin

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    It's the summer of 2008. For the past decade, Nick and Bryony Skinner and their four children have ridden high on the economic boom, but their luck is about to run out. Suddenly, the privileged family finds itself at the center of a financial scandal:Their Central London house is besieged by the press, Nick disappears, and Bryony and the children become virtual prisoners in their own home. And Ali, their trusted nanny, watches it all. As the babysitter, she brings a unique insider-outsider perspective to the family, seeing far more than even the family itself is capable of. But when a reporter with a personal connection to the story comes asking her for the inside scoop, will Ali remain loyal to the family who never saw her as anything other than the help? Or will she tell her side?Written with Fiona Neill's delicious humor and addictive style, What the Nanny Saw is a keenly observed, often comical chronicle of the urban wealthy elite, of parents who are often too busy to notice what is going on under their own noses, of children left to their own devices, and of a young nanny thrown into a role she doesn't know how to play. It is a morality tale of our time, a tale of betrayal, the corrosive influence of too much money, and why good people sometimes do bad things.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 2, 2012
    ISBN9781452678948
    What the Nanny Saw

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    Reviews for What the Nanny Saw

    3/5

    57 ratings17 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Like other reviewers before me, I tried really hard to get into this book, particularly since I received it through the Early Reviewers program. I lasted until page 116 before I finally gave up and set it aside. I just did not care one whit about ANY of the characters in this book. I usually love British chick lit, so that was not the problem. Byrony was your stereotypical type A wealthy working mom - boring. Ali seemed wholly uninterested in being a nanny. The kids were odd. The plot was incredibly complex and uninteresting. When I have stacks and stacks of much more interesting books waiting to be read, I don't see the point in struggling through a book that I don't like.
    • 2/5
      This book, I suppose, tries to show the ridiculousness of posh society in England from the perspective of the Nanny. How she is the person who is always underestimated and yet the glue that binds this sort of lifestyle together. It accomplishes this ...but in an incredibly dull manner. I tried to stick with the book but could not.
    • 3/5
      Slow, but still a good read. Ali the nanny is a bit flat as a character but I suppose she serves as the lens through which her employers, the Skinners are seen by the readers. Not bad. I'm intrigued enough by this author to want to read Slummy Mummy, her debut novel.
    • 5/5
      Won a copy through Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.It was very well written and definitely kept my attention. Would make for a good Lifetime movie.
    • 3/5
      I requested this book from the Early Reviewers as it was set in my favorite place, London, and because I thought I might learn a little something about the recent financial crisis. Like other reviewers, I had a hard time "getting into" the book. In the end, I felt the story was more about being a nanny and the pitfalls of becoming entwined with your family. Over all, it was OK, but not especially memorable.
    • 4/5
      Ali Sparrow is an indebted student who lands a nannying job for a very wealthy London family. Though short on childcare experience, her topnotch grades inspire confidence in her new employers, the Skinners. Though initially out of place, Ali eventually forges a bond with the Skinner children, and she becomes more and more enmeshed in family life. So when, a couple years into their employ, the Skinners head into a tailspin of financial scandal, Ali is the fly-on-the-wall who sees everything unfold, and may be the only person to know the truth.What the Nanny Saw is a deeply engaging examination of class, wealth, and interpersonal dynamics. As the line between Ali’s professional and personal lives become increasingly muddy, the reader witnesses the origins of friendship, loyalty and love. The reader becomes another kind of observer as Ali is drawn deeply into the Skinner’s lives. Though she is only the nanny, is it possible she is actually becoming the new nucleus of this wealthy family’s orbit? The answer to this question, how it happens and what its consequences are, are the great fun of this book. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      What the Nanny Saw by Fiona Neill is a nanny’s-eye view of the greedy excesses of 1% --bank executives, stock market traders, and others in London’s financial sector -- during the two years leading up to the global economic collapse in 2008, but the bestselling author of Slummy Mummy doesn’t quite succeed in merging several intriguing scandals and story lines into a single compelling novel.High-powered executives in their respective fields of finance and public relations, Nick and Bryony Skinner need more than just their live-in Filipina housekeeper for all the daily chauffeuring, chaperoning, coaching, and coaxing duties involved in raising four children. Ali Sparrow (representing the 99%) lands the job as nanny to Nick and Bryony Skinner’s four above-average children: Jake (age 18, underachieving and hot), Izzy (age 15, rebellious with a borderline eating disorder), and identical twins Hector and Alfie (age 5, and inseparable.) Wealthy strivers and social climbers, Nick and Bryony – though not yet in the 1% themselves – can see it from their impressive Holland Park Crescent home.A popular London Times columnist, Fiona Neill airs ethical/moral dilemmas and exposes stereotypes of people in different social classes in a humorous way. Unfortunately, the humor in What the Nanny Saw gets weighed down by the burdensome message that corporate greed and economic inequality are bad. I’ll still keep an eye out for her next novel, though.For full review, please visit Bay State Reader's Advisory blog.
    • 1/5
      Like other reviewers before me, I tried really hard to get into this book, particularly since I received it through the Early Reviewers program. I lasted until page 116 before I finally gave up and set it aside. I just did not care one whit about ANY of the characters in this book. I usually love British chick lit, so that was not the problem. Byrony was your stereotypical type A wealthy working mom - boring. Ali seemed wholly uninterested in being a nanny. The kids were odd. The plot was incredibly complex and uninteresting. When I have stacks and stacks of much more interesting books waiting to be read, I don't see the point in struggling through a book that I don't like.
    • 4/5
      Ali is a 23 year old Nanny under the employ of an outrageously wealthy British family when the 2008 world financial crisis hits. Nick and Bryony Skinner both had extremely successful careers, Nick as a Bank Manager and Bryony as the head of a Financial PR firm. The novel starts with a scene close to the end of the book and then restarts from when Ali is first hired as the nanny. With identical twin 5-year old boys, an anorexic 14 year old and a hypersexualized 18 year old to supervise, Ali has a lot of responsibility. As she is accepted by the family, she always finds herself feeling somewhat invisible and on the perimeter of the family's life. Ali's position allows her to observe the Skinners from the inside and gives her a unique perspective on the accusations raised against Nick, which force him into hiding as the FSC investigates him later in the story.Though this story doesn't really climax till the end of the book, I really enjoyed the long road to get there. I enjoyed that the Skinners weren't abusive to their children or overly exploitive of Ali. Unlike the Nanny Diaries and others, where the children pay the price for their parent's misguided and neglectful parenting, I enjoyed Ali's growing relationships with the kids in the family. Though the story held more financial discussion and analysis than I could appreciate, I loved Ali's perspectives on the Skinner's lifestyle and the humor sparked by the twins and the teen daughter, Izzy. I was regretful when I had to put the novel down and I looked forward to picking it up again!
    • 3/5
      I'm not sure why but evidently I had a better time with this book than other reviewers. It took me a little longer to read with hectic life, but I still felt the urgency wishing I was able to keep reading when I needed to put it down. The book is about a girl from northern England who takes a job as a nanny with a very rich family in London. The differences in lifestyle and how loyalty to the children and family sneaks up on her. The ending was a bit lackluster but it was overall a good read.
    • 2/5
      I can only echo what the other reviewers have written. I picked this book up numerous times and tried to wade through it The writing wasn't bad, but the characters were so dull. It may be that the British point of view just didn't work for me. Ultimately, I didn't care what the Nanny saw.
    • 1/5
      I have reviewed several books for Library Thing now, and I always force myself to read to the end of the book, even if I don't like the book. Unfortunately, I couldn't make myself do that with this one. I picked it up and put it down many, many times before just giving up around page 30. The part of the book that I did read was, in my opinion, badly written, the plot was chaotic and confusing, and it was just kind of boring. I am really disappointed because, on the surface, this is the sort of book that I normally love. Anyone looking for a book along the lines of The Nanny Diaries (as I was) should look elsewhere!
    • 4/5
      This is a well-written book which I received as part of the Early Reviewers program. Although it starts off somewhat slowly, I felt I got a real feel for who the characters were. Perhaps the author was overly-ambitious trying to cover multiple genres, but I found it an interesting read.
    • 4/5
      Any fans of Slummy Mummy will likely enjoy this book as well. Once again Ms. Neill takes a weighty topic and infuses humor and humanness to make it very accessible.Although this book was slow-paced, I still enjoyed it quite a lot. I felt like the pacing was somewhat deliberate in that it really steeped you in the world in which this story takes place and it was a long burn up to a big melt-down which was exactly how things seem to go back in 2008. Despite this being a rather serious story, humor and some interesting characters were nicely mixed in to keep it from being didactic.
    • 3/5
      Overall, I did enjoy reading this book although I felt as though the characters were never really fully developed, especially Ali, the main character. At the end of the book, I found myself feeling that I never really knew who she was whereas other characters seemed to be more sharply drawn. It was interesting to read about the financial meltdown from more of an insider's perspective but at times it felt as though the many financial discussions were somewhat out of place. The ending also did feel somewhat rushed - I would have liked to have read more about what happened to the characters after the melt-down. Despite that, I did find it a quick and enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      Before I post a review I usually go through any earlier reviews that may have been posted. I like to get a sense of what other's thought and usually I find something I've missed myself about the book. Whether I agree or disagree with the other reviewer, it is often helpful for me to get a greater perspective. This book is interesting, in that the reviews on it are all, for the most part, very short, both the postive and the negative. Guess I understand because I am having a bit of trouble reviewing this novel. The story was good, the humor was fun, the characters were "knowable" and it was overall an entertaining read. The book did not however inspire a great gushing of emotion or any new insights into much of anything. I would call this novel a "vacation" read and I know that, just as there are many types of books, so too are there various types of readers. Ms Neill writes well and competently, she deserves an audience. Over all the book was O.K., all I needed was a sandy beach and a comfortable beach chair.Mystery readers.....take a chance on this one. You will enjoy the humor and the plot. You'll find Fiona Neill's unique style entertaining.
    • 4/5
      Intriguing characters, I enjoyed them and the financial backdrop of this book.