talked about this morning.’

‘But, Mum! You can’t sign anything without waiting for Norman!’

‘Where is Norman, actually?’ said Mrs Green. ‘And Cyril – they can’t still be in bed?’

Megsie had to think quickly. ‘They’ve gone out – to – to the field,’ she said, and then turned away to blush because she wasn’t used to telling fibs.

‘Yes,’ said Celia, who was, ‘they’ve gone to check the barley.’

‘Oh,’ said Mrs Green. ‘Well, they’ll be back soon, won’t they?’

‘Isabel . . .’ said Phil, waggling the fountain pen at her, ‘we’ve got to get on with this!’

‘I’ve got to read it first, haven’t I?’ said Mrs Green, picking up the contract and studying it closely.

Megsie closed her eyes. What could she do?

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The Diary 23

I’m sorry to interrupt the story as it’s getting rather tense but just freeze-frame everyone in your head and then when you get back to it, it’ll be even more exciting, I hope.

We’re getting ready in a car park near Euston Station. Oh, the glamour. Today is a very exciting day because we are filming with the Horse Guards! It’s a bit of the story that isn’t in the book, where Nanny McPhee and the boys get held up by a lot of horses’ bottoms. The horses – and their bottoms – belong to the Horse Guards – the special regiment that guards the Queen – and they are so, so beautiful. The Guards are all very young and each one of them has his own horse and has to look after it day and night. They work with the horses every day and live with them all the time – it is a very intense life and they don’t really get any time off at all. I was very impressed by them all – these lads who live and breathe their animals and have a very close relationship to each other as well. It must be very hard work, but also very rewarding.

Today is also special because my Stunt Double (see Glossary), Ray De Haan, is on set. He is dressed exactly like me but has to do one thing I can’t do – and that is to drive the motorcycle right up to the horses’ bottoms and brake hard to avoid running into them. I have had lessons on the bike (I LOVE it) but I am not experienced enough to do this bit without everyone worrying about me actually ramming the bottoms and hurting either the horses or the children. So I will do the close-up motorcycle riding, like when Nanny arrives at the War Office and leaves and so forth, and Ray will do the expert stuff that takes years of experience.

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It is very peculiar having someone on set who looks the same as me. He has the nose and everything.

‘It’s so HOT and HEAVY,’ he said, which was a great comfort to me. I also have another double who stands in for me while they get shots ready and sometimes has to do what we call Second Unit work (see Glossary), stuff like faraway shots that don’t need actors to speak or that use animals and would therefore take too much time to shoot with the main cameras. She is called Abbie James and is a living saint. She came up to me the other day and said she’d been working with the Second Unit on set at Shepperton during the hot weather and had a very hard time.

‘I couldn’t breathe properly,’ she confessed, which was also very comforting to me. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one suffering . . .

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I’ve just found out that a lot of the young guardsmen are just back from stints in Iraq and that some are off soon to Afghanistan. Gives one food for thought. They have done all their stuff wonderfully well – we have taken over a London street and there are lots of people watching and waving. It’s very jolly. The horses get taken off to Regent’s Park for a rest and some water and food so you can go and pat them there without getting in the way. Gaia is playing a little evacuee, in a hat and coat from the 1940s that make her look miles younger, for some reason. Clothes do make such a difference.

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We decided to go and have a little lunch out with mates who’d come to visit the set, and we walked down the street and into a nice Spanish restaurant and had tapas,