A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR

Brenda Ashford

A Spoonful of Sugar

UK & Commonwealth rights: Hodder & Stoughton

US rights: Doubleday

UK publication: June 2012

All other rights available

Synopsis and sample chapters available now

A lovely, uplifting memoir which ticks all the boxes for nostalgia – upstairs / downstairs, adorable children, and evokes a time when people looked after one another.

Brenda Ashford is 90 years old and spent 62 years working as a Norland Nanny.  She began training in 1939 at the age of 18, shortly before war was declared. It was a time of great uncertainty, particularly for children. Although she was just a nervous young trainee, Brenda decided she’d devote her life to giving children the best possible start in life, regardless of the horrors that were unravelling on the continent, and when the blitz began, their doorsteps.

A Spoonful of Sugar tells the story of Brenda’s war years. She worked throughout the war with children from all sorts of families – from poverty-stricken evacuees from East End London to the nurseries of smart Kensington homes.

Brenda is an exceptionally warm and gifted storyteller and nostalgia fans will fall in love with her uplifting memoir.  The memoir will include photos from both Brenda’s incredible personal collection, and the Norland archive.

Brenda Ashford is 90 years old and lives in Buckinghamshire.  Although she never married or had her own children, the walls of her flat are covered with photos of the children she looked after, and their children too. The Norland Institute was established in the late nineteenth century and their nannies are well known for their starched aprons and enormous prams. Brenda is a real-life Mary Poppins, who devoted her life to nurturing children and helping them flourish.