MY HAVEN – MIRIAM STOPPARD

The doctor, writer and broadcaster, 79, in the study of her central London flat

1 80 YEARS YOUNG

I’ve had this flat for 24 years – I live here with my husband Christopher – and I spend more time in my study than anywhere else, writing, researching and watching sport on my little TV set. It’s cosy and full of treasured items like this Stone Age ox bone that I use as a paperweight

– I love it because I’m keen on history. My younger son Ed gave it to me for my birthday a few years ago. In May I hope to celebrate my 80th – but I still feel 38 and I’m in better shape than I was then!

2 GREEN FINGERS

I also have a house in France with a garden that I created myself. To me gardening’s like meditation and I hope when I keel over it’s while dead-heading a plant in a border. This history of pansies was published in 1835, when they were first bred in the garden at Iver Grove in Buckinghamshire, the home I shared with my first husband Tom Stoppard for 20 years. Tom and I have always been friends, even when we were divorcing; there’s never been any animosity between us.

3 BEST BOYS

Here are my two sons in Fiji about 20 years ago. On the left is Ed, who’s an actor. I once attended every other night of a West End show he did and he said, ‘Mum, you mustn’t keep coming... you wouldn’t watch anybody else doing their job!’ On the right is Will, a producer currently working on a film about Barry Sheene. When Will was ten he made me the flower press here with the daisies on at school. It’s painted on one side by him and on the other by Ed. A beautiful gift from my sons.

4 WHAT’S UP DOC?

My father Sidney was a male nurse and my mum Jenny was a dinnerlady. We were a strict Orthodox Jewish family. Irrespective of gender, Dad wanted his firstborn to be a doctor, and I spent seven years practising medicine in teaching hospitals in Bristol, Newcastle and London before entering the pharmaceutical industry. This stethoscope went everywhere with me and is very special. I keep abreast of medical research and five years ago I went to the aid of a lady who collapsed in the street.

5 CLOCK THIS

When I was at medical school in Newcastle I chose this Jaeger-LeCoultre clock as a 21st birthday gift from my parents. I’m a Geordie and I had silly pretensions to be sophisticated, and it seemed to me the accessory for a sophisticated 21-year-old woman was a pretty travelling clock like this. It’s the most beautiful one I’ve ever seen, with a little sapphire at the top to stop and start the alarm. It reminds me of my parents and the days when I was naive – and it still works perfectly!

6 GREAT GRANNY

I have 11 grandchildren – and another on the way – thanks to my sons, my two stepsons with Tom and the two stepdaughters I share with Christopher, who was a businessman but is now retired. I’m a better granny than I was a mother, because I worked full time then. I’ve only realised the mother I could have been by becoming a grandmother. I’ve had sleepovers at the British Museum with three of my granddaughters and we’ve made this Greek helmet, Aztec crown and Roman coin.

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