The legendary children's author Judith Kerr has died aged 95.
Her publisher Harper Collins has given her fans the heartbreaking news that she was found dead at her home yesterday following a short illness.
Charlie Redmayne, HarperCollins CEO said: "Judith Kerr was a wonderful and inspiring person who was much loved by everyone at HarperCollins.
"She was a brilliantly talented artist and storyteller who has left us an extraordinary body of work. Always understated and very, very funny, Judith loved life and loved people - and particularly she loved a party.
"Beautifully dressed and with a smile on her face she would light up the room and would always be one of the last to leave. Time spent in her company was one of life’s great privileges and I am so grateful to have known her."
Judith was due to promote her new book, The Curse Of The School Rabbit next Saturday at the Hay literary festival
The Tiger Who Came To Tea has sold over five million copies and never been out of print.
Her next book introduced Mog the cat, who went on to star in over fifteen titles until Goodbye Mog in 2002.
But despite her huge success, Judith never gave up her love of writing and was still planning another booked aged 92.
The Daily Mirror's chief feature writer, Rachael Bletchly met Judith three years ago, shortly after she was recovering from hip replacement surgery.
The author, then 92, was looking forward to getting back to her long daily walks – because fresh air helps her to dream up new ideas.
Every day for the past half century, Judith returned from her stroll and turned those ideas into childhood magic.
Her colourful drawings and witty words fired the imagination of generations and instilled a lifelong love of reading.
She said: “I’m doing pretty well. I’m walking all over the place and just getting back to work. And I really need to work. I don’t know what I’d do without it.
“I hope I’ve got another book in me. I am fidgeting about with a new idea but am still at the slightly hopeful stage. I need to get out and walk more!”
Just a week later, Judith was honoured at the London Book Fair, which ran alongside London Book and Screen Week.
Her works have all been written in her pretty home in Barnes, South West London.
And it was there, in 1968, she met a smiling tiger with human eyes and a large appetite who wished to come to tea.
At least that was the bedtime story she told to her children Michael and Tacy.
Later she wrote it down and illustrated it. It launched her career, sold five million copies and has never been out of print.
Since then Judith has written 33 other books and admitted the Tiger is no longer her cup of tea.
She said: “I can’t complain when it’s done so well.
“But I am boringly earnest and academic about my drawing and I have got much better at it in the past 50 years. So it may be my most successful book but it’s not my best!”
In 1970 Judith created Mog the Forgetful Cat – a grey and black striped tabby based on her own quirky pet. Fifteen other Mog books followed.
But in 2002 she stunned fans by killing her famous cat.
Goodbye, Mog opened with the lines: “Mog was tired. She was dead tired... Mog thought ‘I want to sleep forever’.
"And so she did. But a little bit of her stayed awake to see what would happen next.”
People were heartbroken. Prince Philip tackled her at a palace reception, asking: “Why have you killed off Mog?”
Judith, whose screenwriter husband Nigel Kneale died in 2006, explained: “The book was a way of saying you never lose people.
"At the time my husband and I were both getting on for 80 and I was thinking about those we’d leave.
"I suppose I was saying ‘Remember me but get on with your lives’.
“My father died when I was 25 but I still have conversations with him in my head.”
Judith also tackled another painful subject, the Holocaust, in a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels. She was born in Berlin, the daughter of Alfred Kerr, a renowned theatre critic and author.
He had openly slated Hitler and in 1933 had to flee to Switzerland. The Nazis then began burning his books.
Judith, nine, her mother Julia and elder brother Michael, 12, followed him, eventually settling in Britain.
But she was unaware of how lucky they had been.
She said: “We left Germany the night before Hitler took power on March 5, 1933.
“My mother later told me that at 8am the following day the Nazis turned up at our house to seize our passports.”
As they fled Judith left behind her favourite toy, a battered pink bunny.
She says: “I loved Pink Rabbit. She got quite worn and my brother played football with her!
"Her eyes fell off so Heimpi, who looked after us, embroidered new eyes.
“When we left I was allowed to take one toy but I took a stupid little dog instead because it was new. I always blamed myself for leaving her behind. Oh, I did miss her.
“I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for my parents. They hoped they would be able to return or send for things. But it was all taken by the Nazis.”
Including her toy rabbit.
Judith said: “I originally didn’t write about Pink Bunny in the book but when I told my husband he said I had to as she was the essence of the whole story.
"He even came up with the title, When Hitler Stole Pink Bunny.”
The book and its sequels, Bombs on Aunt Daisy and A Small Person Far Away were global hits and won awards in Germany.
And Judith’s autobiography, published on her 90th birthday, was dedicated “to the one and a half million Jewish children who didn’t have my luck and all the pictures they might have painted”.
Judith adored her father and was delighted when, aged 81, he was able to visit Hamburg again to review a Shakespeare play.
He got a standing ovation.
But that night he suffered a stroke and, realising he would not recover, he asked his wife to help him commit suicide.
Judith said: “Suicide at that time was a crime and they wanted it kept secret, especially as my brother was embarking on a great career as a lawyer.”
He later became a Lord Justice of Appeal.
Judith added: “My mother decided she couldn’t be there when he took the pills. I never had a moment’s doubt that it was right. He felt it was enough.
So I’ve always made it clear I support assisted suicide. My father loved life more than almost anyone I ever knew but he was absolutely right.
“And I’m not afraid of death, not at all. But I am scared of hanging on in some incapacitated way.
" I have a piece of paper signed by my doctor that says Do Not Resuscitate and I think the world is coming round to the same view now.”
But, to the delight of millions, Judith did agree to let Mog be resuscitated, resurrected in fact, last December.
He starred in Sainsbury’s Christmas TV ad which was accompanied by a new book, Mog’s Christmas Calamity, and a soft toy.
Judth said: “I had no choice. Sainsbury’s said they wanted to make the film and give the proceeds to Save the Children’s literacy work – over a million pounds.
