Went to London, Took the Dog: The Diary of a 60-Year-Old Runaway

Written by Nina Stibbe

Narrated by Nina Stibbe

This brilliant audiobook is wittily and hilariously read by the author, Nina Stibbe.

'Painfully funny, but also deeply moving' - Meg Mason

'Vulnerable, sharp, funny, wise' - Bonnie Garmus

'A unique comic voice, endlessly funny' - David Nicholls

Twenty years after leaving London, Nina Stibbe is back in town with her dog, Peggy. Together they take up lodging in the house of writer Deborah (Debby) Moggach in Camden for 'a year-long sabbatical'. It’s a break from married life back in Cornwall, or even perhaps a fresh start altogether.

Debby does not have many demands – only to water the garden, watch for toads, and defrost the odd pie – so Nina is free to explore the city she once called home. Between scrutinising her son’s online dating developments, navigating the politics of the local pool, and taking detergent advice at the laundrette, this diary of a sixty-year-old runaway reunites us with the inimitable voice of Love, Nina, as the writer becomes, as she puts it, 'a proper adult' at last.

As heard on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour

'An utter, UTTER treat! It was like spending time with my most clever, insightful, funny, FUNNY friend' - Marian Keyes

'No one writes heartbreak more hilariously, or hilarity more heartbreakingly' - Katherine Heiny

'So sharp and funny, blissfully gossipy, enviably well-observed . . . I loved it' - India Knight

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Nov 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9781035025305

Nina Stibbe

Nina Stibbe is the author of six books. Love, Nina won Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award at the 2014 National Book Awards, and was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year. The book was adapted by Nick Hornby for BBC Television. She is the author of four novels, all of which have been shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. Her third novel Reasons to be Cheerful (2019) is the only novel to date to have won both the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction and the Comedy Women in Print Award for comic fiction. Her latest novel, One Day I Shall Astonish The World, was published in April 2022.

Reviews for Went to London, Took the Dog

[Karen Randall · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very amusing, fresh, unexpected! Read very well by the author.