The Irish Nanny

‘We have to go, Miss. We can’t wait any longer.’ I hold the baby tighter as the lifeboat is lowered slowly into the water, hitting the rough sea with a splash. My eyes never leave the ship, searching, hoping to see the others and know they are safe… London 1940. As the war rages in Europe, Rose Brown steps on board a ship bound for America, hoping to escape the danger. She’s frightened, but her widowed mammy and three sisters in Ireland need the money she earns as nanny to the rich Townsend family. But while Rose plays with baby Sarah in the salty spray on deck, disaster strikes, and the ocean liner begins to sink. In the chaos, Rose and the baby are separated from the family. Pulled from the sea with the child still in her arms, Rose is afraid as never before. And when she arrives in Brooklyn to search for Sarah’s family she feels completely adrift in this unfamiliar land where looming Brownstones line the streets, and workmen in flat caps jostle her on the sidewalks. But just when Sarah’s father is within reach, the howling air-raid sirens and deafening bombs she thought she’d left behind shatter her plans once again as tragic news arrives from Pearl Harbor. As fear and panic grips America, what heartbreaking sacrifices will Rose have to make to protect her precious charge? And can she reunite the family before it is too late? An emotional, heart-wrenching story of love and family set across Ireland and America during the Second World War. Perfect for fans of Jean Grainger, Lisa Wingate and Diney Costeloe. Readers love The Irish Nanny: ‘I loved this book – I lost my whole day reading – just couldn’t bear to put it down!’ Goodreads reviewer ‘Outstanding!… It gripped me from the first page until the last!… When a book makes your heart break it deserves all the stars.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘Beautiful, harrowing, heart-warming, and heartbreaking all at the same time… 5/5 stars.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘A heartbreaking story of WWII. Loved it so much!’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘5 stars… Heartbreaking.’ Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars ‘I fell in love… Such an emotionally raw story can only be written by someone who has left a little piece of their heart behind in such a special place.’ Goodreads reviewer

There is a fierce wind blowing in from the sea, as I step off the boat towards my new life in America. The baby is a warm weight in my arms and I pause to adjust her, trying not to think about what we left behind. I can't look back now, I need to keep this child safe... Ireland 1939. When hardworking chambermaid Rose meets an American businessman in the hotel where she works in Cork, he makes her an offer she can't refuse. Rose doesn't want to leave home, but her widowed mammy and three younger sisters need the money she'd earn in her new job as a nanny to David Townsend's two young children. Just as Rose is settling into her new life caring for Raphael and new-born baby Sarah, the world is plunged into war and David is called back to New York, leaving Rose to follow by boat with his wife and children. But disaster strikes when the ship they are on is hit by a torpedo. Separated from her group in the awful chaos, Rose has an impossible decision to make. Does she stay and search for the family she owes so much to? Or does she leave on the lifeboat to save the tiny baby left in her care? Landing on American shores, all Rose's hopes of leaving the howling air-raid sirens and deafening bombs behind her are shattered as tragic news arrives from Pearl Harbor. Looking down at the innocent child in her arms, Rose knows that she must find the strength to survive and reunite this little girl with her family. But as fear and panic grips the country, what heartbreaking sacrifices will she have to make to protect her precious charge? An emotional, heart-wrenching story of love and family set across Ireland and America during the Second World War. Perfect for fans of Jean Grainger, Lisa Wingate and Diney Costeloe. Readers love Sandy Taylor: 'Wow... I absolutely loved this book. Warning: keep the tissues handy!' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Gut-wrenching... Brought me to tears numerous times.' Stacy is Reading, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Writing this through tears, the funniest, most tearful book I've ever read. Fantastic.' Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

'This story is the result of long hours of delving into the pasts of my nanny and my ma. I hope it will give some insight into the experiences of one family of colour in Ireland today. Most of all, I just want to start a conversation, because once people come together to talk, the possibilities are endless.' Jade Jordan Jade Jordan's grandmother, Kathleen, left Ireland for England in the late 1950s to train as a nurse. While there, she fell in love and married a Jamaican man. They had two sons and a daughter, Dominique, and settled in London's diverse Walthamstow. But when Kathleen decided to return home to Dublin, she discovered that the colour of her children's skin set them apart - and that their new lives would be very different to the ones they had known. Here, in this honest, warm-hearted and often humorous multi-generational memoir, Kathleen, Dominique and her daughter Jade each tell their story. From Kathleen's determination to raise her children with love and security in inner-city Dublin, to Dominique's struggle to figure out how she fit in as a young Black teenager, to Jade's own experiences as a Black woman growing up in twenty-first-century Ireland, Nanny, Ma & Me is a story about race in a country of contradictions. At its heart lies a tale of the power of community, love and three women for whom family is everything.

“The Nanny kept me in white-knuckled suspense until the very last page. Gilly Macmillan’s breakout thriller is a dark and twisted version of Downton Abbey gone very, very wrong.” — Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author The New York Times bestselling author of What She Knew conjures a dark and unpredictable tale of family secrets that explores the lengths people will go to hurt one another. When her beloved nanny, Hannah, left without a trace in the summer of 1988, seven-year-old Jocelyn Holt was devastated. Haunted by the loss, Jo grew up bitter and distant, and eventually left her parents and Lake Hall, their faded aristocratic home, behind. Thirty years later, Jo returns to the house and is forced to confront her troubled relationship with her mother. But when human remains are accidentally uncovered in a lake on the estate, Jo begins to question everything she thought she knew. Then an unexpected visitor knocks on the door and Jo’s world is destroyed again. Desperate to piece together the gaping holes in her memory, Jo must uncover who her nanny really was, why she left, and if she can trust her own mother… In this compulsively readable tale of secrets, lies, and deception, Gilly Macmillan explores the darkest impulses and desires of the human heart. Diabolically clever, The Nanny reminds us that sometimes the truth hurts so much you’d rather hear the lie.

A grand-scale historical novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Mistress Shakespeare. Born into a first family of Ireland, with royal ties on both sides, Elizabeth Fitzgerald—known as Gera—finds her world overturned when Henry VIII imprisons her father, the Earl of Kildare, and brutally destroys her family. Torn from the home she loves, her remaining family scattered, Gera dares not deny the refuge offered her in England's glittering royal court. There she must navigate ever-shifting alliances even as she nurtures her secret desire for revenge. From County Kildare's lush green fields to London's rough-and-tumble streets and the royal court's luxurious pageantry, The Irish Princess follows the journey of a daring woman whose will cannot be tamed, and who won't be satisfied until she restores her family to its rightful place in Ireland.

"On a cool, end-of-July morning in 1939, eleven-year-old Sylvia Couturie and her eight-year-old sister, Marguerite, escorted by their Irish nanny, "Wally," left their family's elegant French chateau for a fantastically ill-timed vacation. Cut-off from their family as France falls to the Germans, the penniless threesome is reduced to living in a miserable cottage without indoor plumbing on a remote strip of the Irish coast."--Jacket.

A "coming-of-age memoir by a young woman who spent thirteen years as Jackie Kennedy's personal assistant and occasional nanny--and the lessons about life and love she learned from the glamorous [former] first lady"--Amazon.com.