The Writer Who Came to Stay the Nonagenarian Author on Durability, Escaping Nazi Germany and the Fragility of Peace
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Interview Judith Kerr The writer who came to stay The nonagenarian author on durability, escaping Nazi Germany and the fragility of peace isitORS to Judith Kerr’s is a writer and historian, who, for mocking the Nazis. He fled a wonderful, supportive husband, house can’t help but as his father did, has won the Berlin for Switzerland in 1933, lucky that her first book was V exclaim ‘Oh, it’s the Somerset Maugham Award. on a tip-off that his passport picked up immediately and lucky kitchen from The Tiger Who ‘Tacy had this terrible thing was about to be confiscated. to have experienced the best of Came to Tea’. These Formica she used to say,’ Miss Kerr recalls He sent for his family just in people. The Blitz was ‘very fright- worktops from the much-loved of doing a tedious task such as time—two days later, Hitler came ening, but I never saw anyone picture book will be familiar to tidying toys. ‘I’d try to think of to power. The family moved to seriously hurt. My parents both the generations who grew up something else and Tacy knew Paris, then to London in 1936. had German accents, but nobody with Sophie and the tiger and and she’d say “Mummy! What you George Bernard Shaw sponsored ever said anything nasty to them.’ Mog the Forgetful Cat, plus her thoughting? Stop thoughting!”.’ Mr Kerr’s naturalisation. How, then, has she felt, witness- successor, Katinka, now 13 and Was this the equivalent of ing the recent rise—indeed, the dozing on a chair upstairs. sneaking a look at Facebook? tacit tolerance—of anti-semitism? Judith Kerr and her late hus- ‘Yes, I think it was. Mobile phones Because I’m so A look of anguish crosses her band, Quatermass author Nigel hadn’t been invented then, but face. ‘I can’t quite believe it,’ she Kneale, installed the kitchen I think I would have had have old, I remember says, quietly. ‘It’s rather shock- in their tall Edwardian house one at least some of the time.’ how quickly ing, because he [Labour leader in Barnes, south-west London, in Miss Kerr is working on a new Jeremy Corbyn] appeals to the 1962, when the area was ‘grotty book, ‘sort of in between a pic- the world can people who want something done —no one wanted to live here’. ture book and a full-length novel, and it’s somebody’s fault.’ The kitchen was ‘built when they with lots of drawings’, for 8–9 year become a totally Miss Kerr’s feelings about the made things to last,’ she adds, olds. She maintains an impress- current state of the world, with rapping the worktop. ive work ethic, starting after different place tolerance and kindness appear- Durability is something of breakfast, when the light is good, ing in short supply, seem far which she knows a good deal. and going on ‘as long as you’re Both Miss Kerr and her late removed from the cheerfulness Last year, Miss Kerr turned 95, sort of getting somewhere’. brother, Sir Michael Kerr, a High of her books. Like many of her celebrated the 50th anniversary At the arrival of our photogra- Court judge, felt that ‘our child- neighbours, she ‘couldn’t believe’ of The Tiger Who Came to Tea pher, Miss Kerr dashes up three hood was much better than the the result of the EU referendum. and published her 34th book. Her flights of stairs to tidy her studio, childhood we would have had if ‘Those of us who survived the total sales are about 10 million. then picks up the interview exactly there’d been no Hitler’. Of course, Second World War have lived Mummy Time, her new book, where we left off. She’s the epitome she didn’t realise how bad things through probably the safest and tells of the fantastical adven- of a good life, well lived. were, because her parents were most affluent period in history,’ tures enjoyed by a small boy when It could all have been so very ‘very protective’ and she ‘loved’ she thinks, ‘but, because I’m so his mother is distracted by her different. Part of the citation for life as a refugee. ‘It was very old, I remember how quickly it can mobile phone, a scenario Miss her OBE, in 2012, was for ‘ser- hard sometimes—it was hard to change. I remember the war and Kerr observes during her daily vices to Holocaust education’. learn French, but then we were how, suddenly, the world was walks over Barnes Common, Her fictionalised memoir of her both top in French and I know a totally different place. I walk started in 2006 after her husband family’s escape from the Nazis, of other refugee children who about and look at people, out with died, because ‘it cheered me up’. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, did the same. With it goes a huge their children and walking about Mummy Time isn’t a criticism is essential reading for both longing to belong.’ and shopping, and I think do of modern parenting, more an German and British children. She’s been, she says, ‘very, they realise how fragile it all is?’ observation. Like so many people, Her father, Alfred Kerr, a writer very lucky’; lucky to have left In Pink Rabbit, Judith’s alter Miss Kerr found her own child- and critic, had his books burned Germany in time, lucky to find ego, Anna, wonders whether she’s ren ‘enchanting and fascinating having the ‘difficult childhood’ —and incredibly boring. You On the record necessary to become successful. take out… well, nowadays it’s Was she aware, then, how forma- Mummy Time is published by HarperCollins (£12.99) a scooter. Then, it was a tricycle, tive it would be? ‘I probably made and, after 10 yards, you have Where is your favourite place in Britain? London: walking more of it in the book,’ she muses, along the river from Barnes to Hammersmith to carry it. It is trying’. ‘and so much of it has been luck.’ Miss Kerr, who had been a BBC Painting? A Rembrandt self-portrait For her young readers, she scriptwriter, looked after her Music? Mozart’s Great Mass has this advice: ‘If there’s some- children herself, ‘but I always Food? Strawberries with yoghurt thing they very much want to do, kept drawing’. Her first book, even if it isn’t financially very Book? Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Yuval Tiger, was honed as a bedtime Noah Harari) sensible, it’s worth hanging on for story for her daughter, Tacy, now that, rather than feeling, always, Favourite of your own books? My Henry, about an old lady a special-effects designer who that I might have done that. And who imagines herself having all sorts of wild excitements has worked on the ‘Harry Potter’ I just wish them luck.’ with her late husband in Heaven Clara Molden Clara films. Her son, Matthew Kneale, Flora Watkins 34 Country Life, January 23, 2019 www.countrylife.co.uk www.countrylife.co.uk Country Life, January 23, 2019 35.