K is waiting for a phone call from her first love.

Over a decade ago she made a pact with him: if neither had found a partner, they would marry and have a baby. Now, at 35, after years as a career nanny mothering other women’s children, she has been struck with that relentless, near carnal desperation to give birth. And this call may be the cure.

Whilst she waits – in a bar, drinking with friends – she lays out the reasons why she has arrived at this point, and each reason opens a door to the past: to her own childhood; to the wealthy families whose children she has caretaken; to an abusive partnership with a woman that she barely survived. Each thread reveals the complex tangle of thrill and pain, tradition and progress that have led to this call, this choice.

A stunning, rare and unexpectedly funny debut, Nanny Nanny upends every expectation of a motherhood book.