IF YOU LOVE YOUR WORK, YOU CAN SURVIVE ANYTHING

At the age of 94, I’m working harder than I ever have. Apart from my cat, Katinka, I’m on my own and I don’t have anything else to do. I don’t have to cook for anyone. I have plenty of friends, but I don’t have a wild social life.

Some days, I don’t speak to a soul, though I’m not lonely. My work sustains me. It used to take me about a year to create a new book, but I’m speeding up. I think I have to at my age. My father’s work defined him, in many ways. A Jewish intellectual and critic in Berlin, Alfred Kerr was put on a death list by Hitler. the Nazis burned his books.

As a family, we fled across Europe, living in Zurich and Paris. We reached England when I was 13. My father was a man of principle — he was horrified when writers he thought of as friends went over to the Nazis. He carried on publicly condemning Hitler, even with a price on his head.

I’d disappear into drawing when scared. My father was good at making everything into an adventure for my brother and me. He was disposed to be happy.

When my husband of 52 years died in 2006, I did find it hard to work for a while. tom was a writer, and we spent most of our lives working at home together.

We had separate studies, but sooner or later, one of us would pop in and suggest lunch or a cup of tea. I miss that.

One sad thing about being on your own is there’s nobody to do nothing with. When there are two of you, it’s possible to watch rubbish on Tv, but on your own, it’s not. It’s too boring.

Work is what keeps you going — being busy and creating something. What it comes down to is that you have to have something outside of yourself. For the first time in my life, I could work 24 hours a day. It’s a privilege to have found something that gives me such joy.