The Rise and Fall of the British Nanny.

London: Hodder and Stoughton. Very Good/Very Good. 1972. Hard Cover. 8vo 0340126795 Dust wrapper unclipped. Bright orange cloth with silver lettering on spine.No ownership inscription. 350 pages. Contents clean and tight. Perhaps the most remarkable and envied of all British institutions is the British Nanny. Yet curiously she has never received the historical and literary treatment which the Nannied classes all over the world would certainly regard as her due. This long-felt gap is now most ably, and entertainingly, filled by the novelist Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy. He has researched the memoirs of the great for their Nanny-memories. He has spoken to dozens who have Nanny-memories - some bitter and alarming, many extremely affectionate. He considers the social role of Nannies in the production of empire-building generations. He does not omit psychology, child-upbringing and adolescent traumas where these are relevant to Nannies. He pinpoints the high seasons of the Nanny in the early years of this century, but also comments on her astonishing resilience. In a revolutionary world the stable values for which she stands might seem outmoded but are not. No au pair incursion can replace her-she is unique; and this is a very brilliant and indeed important account of who and what she is. .