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"I'm Judith Kerr; I do picture books"

So says the self-effacing 95-year old author of 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea'. Listen to a lovely interview with Judith Kerr broadcast on Radio 4 this afternoon, where she describes the genesis of her first book - she says the tiger first came to life in a bedtime story she made up for her young daughter, Sophie. Sophie was, understandably, entranced and begged for repeated re-tellings, so that when Judith sat down to write a children's book a few years later (TTWCTT was first published in 1968) the tiger seemed an obvious subject. The programme is well worth listening to, with lots of insights into Judith's early life in Nazi Germany, and descriptions of the study where she has written for 50 years. Here's a link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b5x1zl

(c) Judith Kerr (1968)

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