Nina Stibbe is a very readable writer with a witty turn of phrase. This book takes place during a difficult time in her marriage (although she doesn't go into great detail on this), when she decides to (mostly) leave her home in Cornwall and take a sabbatical in London, becoming the lodger of the writer Deborah Moggach. We revisit some of the literary figures who featured in her earlier autobiographical work, as well as meeting several new faces from the London literary and media scenes (some given their real names, others disguised). It is an entertaining read which also makes you think about the position of more senior women in the world, and the courage needed to make changes in an establushed life.

Sadly I didn’t finish this book. I didn’t gel with the ‘voice’ and found myself reading other books in between. Other readers love the author’s writing though so don’t take my word for it!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

A fun, charming collection of diary entries from the author on her return to London. I enjoyed the normality of her day to day life, as well as her writing style.

Basically if you already like Stibbe's previous books then you'll like this. This book takes the form of diary entries which may or may not be to everyone's taste but the format has its own merits. If you haven't read Stibbe before then I would probably start with one of her former books but this one will give you a good enough taster to search her back catalogue anyway.

Having really enjoyed 'Love, Nina' and found it hilarious, I hoped I would enjoy this and luckily I did!
I couldn't relate to as much this time as I am not 60 but it still managed to make me laugh in places.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for my eARC

An enjoyable account of Nina’s year in London that takes in covid, Liz Truss and various encounters with celebrities, authors and the redoubtable Deborah Moggach. She writes in such an easy relaxed and readable style — she could be chatting to you in the pub. Dogs, divorce, health problems, adult children - they’re all here in a fresh and ingenious telling of daily life that resonates and reverberates with droll humour

This has been sitting in my Net, galley to be read pile for too long so it is time l got down to reading it
First impressions this is told as the form of a diary and it reads just like you have picked up someone’s diary it’s a bit disjointed and it’s not clear who some of the characters are that have been described . When the author describes early on in the book that they are writing the diary in the style of Alan Bennett this does seem to make more sense to me.
There’s a lot of namedropping I found this quite amusing, and I like the banality of some of the entries
The diary does make it look like the author spends 90% of their time book festivals or meeting up with other novelists over coffee
Being a bit of a book nerd, I loved all the book talk particularly the bit about wanting to be friends with authors that you love , I thought that was just an odd me thing
I enjoyed the random things that the author had seen on Instagram, including their targeted advertisements, and the stupid videos that we l spend too much time, watching every day glad to see it’s not just me !
There is a lot of talk about the menopause and urinary accidents. So suspect that this book target audience are probably women of the same age who will find these anecdotes amusing.
All in all this is an enjoyable read. I suspect this book would be best read in sections, picking it up from time to time and reading a couple of days worth of action. Personally I tend to read all in one big splurge so didn’t read it like this.
The fact that the novel was published, so soon after the incidents written about in the diary means that the current readers will remember a lot of the things that were happening at the time. Would be very interesting to re-read the novel in 20 years time and see if it brings back the memories in the same way.

I read a electronic copy on NetGalley, UK book was published in November 2023 by Pam McMillan
This review will appear on NetGalley, UK, Goodreads and my book blog, bionicSarahsbooks.wordpress.com. It will also appear on amazon.uk

Not my usual genre but this was very funny with so many references to various areas of London that it would be a fun read for those who have lived/live in the city or those who have visited. It also made me so much more aware of the litter and various hazards a dog could pick up on the streets!

Nina Stibbe never fails to make me laugh. This story about her return to London with Peggy the dog was wise, amusing and never failed to make me laugh. It is such an easy read I have to give this book 10/10. I loved it.😊

In Went to London, Took the Dog, Nina Stibbe transplants herself and her cockapoo Peggy to London for one year while she tries to figure out her life. Stibbe writes wonderfully about her adult children, the challenge of menopause, the joys of a pub quiz and even drops a name or 92.

Forty years after Stibbe first moved to London to be a nanny—the basis for her best-seller Love, Nina-- Stibbe found herself again in the city, as a lodger to the novelist Deborah Moggach. This time, Stibbe is older, wiser and better connected, but still has the same charm, and occasional bafflement about London that she did before.

Although the laughs are plentiful, it is a diary, which means no detail of day-to-day life is too small to be excluded. Some may find this delightful, others might find it a bit banal, or maybe a bit of both. Although she hints at marriage trouble and her sadness about that, she never fully explains what is happening, and I respect that. We don’t need to know, and she doesn’t need to tell us.

Stibbe has a gift for comedy, as evidenced by her wins and shortlists for both the Comedy Women in Print award and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. That gift is on display here, too, but this diary isn’t about the laughs. It’s about appreciating your adult children, learning to be alone, navigating menopause, winning pub quizzes, but mostly about figuring out life, in all its vexing glory.

A year in the life of the author, once she packs up from the SW and returns to London life, lodging in a portion of Deborah (sorry, Debby) Moggach's house. If you know the book that introduced Nina to us all you'll find the expected name-dropping (Stephen Frears' new partner's admiration for the author Nina is having a coffee with, being erroneously suspected of bunking up with Nick Hornby, seeing Alan Bennett and immediately being able to tell Andrew O'Hagan…). You might also have got used to something else that peppers her books, being the unhelpful approach to her real life. It takes ages to confirm here ("am I officially single?") that she's leaving a partner behind, and again the fan is left wondering why la Stibbe has created this style of just mentioning enough about her life for some setting, and nowhere near enough for clarity.

So, what is she writing in this time period? Is she openly running, or just pretending that this points to a scheduled marker in her now sixty years, of twenty years pre-London, twenty in London, and twenty since in Cornwall? Is she regretting anything she or someone else did or did not say that helped inspire the move, or was it purely on a whim, just because another author was moving out of the same pad she could move into?

And what this all results in is a book that is more performance than revelation. Yes, she pulls her back out, but it never gets resolved. We never see what this makes her feel, she never vents frustration at this, that or the other – Zanussi washer repairmen, yes, coffee grinders, the impossibility of unsubscribing from Nespresso emails, yes, but the real things in life, no. To be fair, this did stake a claim instantly to be a female Alan Bennett, and that's the issue. This isn't a diary written for oneself, it's a book written for the imaginary person leering over the author's shoulder, smirk alternating with vape at their mouth, cheering her pratfalls and celebrity chitchat on, and clapping the unlikeliest juxtaposition of words ("imaginative cauliflower dish for dinner").

Life, in real life and in a diary, is a drama. This very much is a comedy. You probably need not have been told that, but it is a crucial point in how many will appreciate these pages. The fact remains this could have been an insightful book about a rarefied year – the year of HRT, the first grey hairs and the dissolving of a long-term relationship that would seriously justify the introspection, but it just relies on droll levity, name-dropping and some top-quality schmoozing instead.

Stibbe is a great chronicler of everyday life and even better at the not so everyday stuff. These glimpses into life with a brilliant writer - two brilliant writers - is wonderfully escapist and a true joy.

Really enjoyed this diarised novel, I have to say I never read any of this authors books but I will seek her out now.
I have an infinity with her as I turn 60 this year!! but that is where the similarity ends - Nina is divorced and returns to London ( we always want to go back to somewhere to see if this was a good) - beautifully written, funny sad and poinant talking about rthe menopause.

I think I am the only one who feel Charlie Bingham meals are super expensive and would rather make my fish pie - oh well no freebies for me - but I expect the book was sponsored by Charlie himself!

Joking apart - there was the fun of people watching on the number 24 bus,the authors love of her dog Peggy, drinhing in the local pub with her children and their friends and realising your self after a break up and the dreaded menopause.

Recommended read

A lovely book, so well written, with great humour and frankness. Her ability to write so succinctly, but pack so much in is a joy to read.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for this ARC

Despite the very positive feedback from other readers I couldn't get in to this book at all. The story felt very slow and jilted. It may be a generational difference with those who are used to Nina Stibbe's writing and previous books able to connect more quickly but unfortunately this is one that I couldn't get in to or finish.

Fans of Nina Stibbe will love her new book.

In this book, she writes of her return to London for a 'year long sabbatical '.
As she adjusts to a new lifestyle, she documents her ever changing life with humour and honesty.

A must for her fans.

I'm enjoying this but is a book I've put down and picked up again (between other books) as felt too much to read it in one go. I like the writer's style and how her life has changed but hasn't compelled me to keep reading it.

I will finish it in time!

As this move was such a huge change in the author’s life, I expected more of a deeper analysis, or understanding, of her reasons for moving to London rather than an account of her daily routines.

It was certainly entertaining in parts, and the timeline of world events was interesting to recall. Although enjoyed by many other reviewers, I’m afraid this wasn’t a book for me.

20 years after leaving London, Nina, now in her 60s, decides to return with her dog Peggy for a year 'sabbatical', lodging with novelist and screenwriter Deborah Moggach in Camden. Went to London, Took the Dog shares Nina's diary from the year, from muddane daily tasks to work events, conversations with friends (including literary figures such as Cathy Rentzenbrink and Nick Hornby) and general musings. We see some familar faces from Love, Nina such as Nina's old boss Mary-Kay Wilmers, Sam Frears ( one of the sons she nannied) and then next door neighbour Alan Bennett, as well as Nina's grown children Alfie and Eva (and their friends) who are living and studying in London.

If you've read Love, Nina (a series of letters Nina sent to her sister when she first moved in London in the 80s working as a nanny), then you'll know what to expect from this book. Accounts of every day things, which almost seem boring or pointless, except there's a drollness to them. I find it fascinating to get an insight into people's real lives. Nina is very open and honest about certain aspects, such as the symptoms of menopause she and her peers are experiencing which is refreshing. And while she's pretty close guarded about her reasons for going to London (problems in her marriage), she does mention it every now and again, with these snippets steeped in vunerability.

I think my favourite part of the book was Nina's relationships with Eva and Alfie. She spends a lot of time with them, encouraging them and enjoying their company. There's a respect and adoration that goes both ways which is just so lovely to see.

I listened to the audiobook and loved Nina narrating it. I took my time to savour it, it felt like being in the room with a friend recounting their day. And with Nina's trademark wit, it made me laugh several times. I want to pick up Love, Nina and reread it!

Went to London, Took the Dog; A Diary, is the latest from Nina Stibbe, a British writer and humorist you might remember from her collection of letters “Love Nina; Dispatches From Family Life”, a book I read years ago, fell in love with and later resulted in me reading everything this author writes.

What a gem she is.

Twenty years after she left London, and now in her 60’s, Nina decides to move back for a year. This is her diary of that time; packed full of literary lunches with the likes of Nick Hornby and Meg Mason, and less glamorous moments like dealing with fox poo and figuring out the best times to use her local launderette. The true joy of Nina Stibbe is that she always says the thing she’s thinking, that she really probably shouldn’t say.
She’s very funny, and if you read this book on audio that really comes through; she’s so droll and adds so much to the narration.

I’ve always loved reading books that are diaries, I’d imagine Nina does too (she references Adrian Mole a few times). While nothing incredibly dramatic happens here, I loved both the humour but also the intimacy of Nina’s entries; she openly discusses her menopausal difficulties (and that of her friends), her divorce, and her feelings of loneliness, which felt incredibly honest.

If you’re looking for a friendly voice to listen to while out for your new year walks, I would definitely recommend this gentle, fun read. Available on Borrowbox.

With many thanks to @netgalley and @panmacmillan for the opportunity to read #WentToLondonTookTheDog, in exchange for an honest review.