Judith Kerr

• Name — Judith Kerr • Birth Name — Anna Judith Gertrud Helene Kerr • Born — 14 June 1923 • Birthplace — Berlin, Germany • Died — 22 May 2019 • Place of death — Barnes, London, England • Citizenship — * German (1923–1941) • Stateless (1941–1947) • British (1947–2019) 11 June 1947, date of naturalisation • Occupation — Writer and illustrator • Genre — Children's literature • Notable Works — The Tiger Who Came to Tea, the Mog series, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit • Children — 2, including Matthew Kneale • Parents — * Alfred Kerr (father) • Julia Weismann (mother) • Relatives — Michael Kerr (brother)

Kerr was born on 14 June 1923 in Berlin, the daughter of Alfred Kerr (1867–1948), a theatre critic, and Julia Kerr (née Weismann; 1898–1965), a composer who was the daughter of a Prussian politician. Kerr had a brother, Michael. Her parents were both from German Jewish families. Early in March 1933, the family heard a rumour that, should the Nazis come to power in the forthcoming election, they planned to confiscate their passports and arrest Alfred Kerr for having openly criticised the party. The family fled Germany for Switzerland on the morning of the election and later learned that the Nazis had come to their home in Berlin the following morning to arrest them. Alfred Kerr's books were burned by the Nazis shortly after he had fled Germany. The family later travelled to France, before finally settling in Britain in 1936, where Judith Kerr lived for the remainder of her life.

During the Second World War, Kerr worked for the Red Cross, helping wounded soldiers, before being awarded a scholarship to study at the Central School of Art and Design and becoming an artist. She met her future husband, screenwriter Nigel "Tom" Kneale, in the BBC canteen. He wrote the cult TV science-fiction serial The Quatermass Experiment for which Kerr helped make and operate the special effects. Kneale later prompted her to apply for a job as a BBC television scriptwriter. Kerr naturalised as a British subject on 21 June 1947. Kerr and Kneale were married in 1954; they remained married until his death in 2006. They had two children, a daughter Tacy (born 1958) and a son Matthew (born 1960). Matthew is also a writer, winning the Book of the Year prize at the Whitbread Book Awards in 2000 for the novel English Passengers. Tacy is an actress, animatronics artist and painter; as an animatronics designer, she initially worked for Jim Henson's Creature Shop before working independently in special effects. She has worked on films including Lost in Space, Dog Soldiers, and the first four Harry Potter films. As an artist, she primarily paints insects. Kerr lived in the same house in Barnes, London, from 1962 until her death on 22 May 2019, aged 95.

• The Tiger Who Came to Tea (HarperCollins, 1968). • The Mog series, including: • Mog the Forgetful Cat (1970) • Mog's Christmas (1976) • Goodbye, Mog (2002) • Mog's Christmas Calamity (2015) • The "Out of the Hitler Time" trilogy: • When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (1971) • Bombs on Aunt Dainty (originally published as The Other Way Round) (1975) • A Small Person Far Away (1978)