Judith Kerr died yesterday, at age 95.

Everyone associates her with the children’s book The Tiger Who Came To Tea, but for me, her best work is her trilogy of novels about her wartime experiences (pictured above as an omnibus edition).

Fictionalised accounts of her early years, starring Anna, as a thinly disguised version of Judith, the novels explore the dark themes of the Nazis and the holocaust, what it was like to flee her home country with her family and to live the life of a refugee, first in Paris and then in London.

These are tales of immigration, isolation, rejection and acceptance.

The trilogy begins with When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, followed by Bombs on Aunt Dainty and ends with A Small Person Far Away, by which time Anna has grown up and gets married.

If you want to know the real Judith Kerr, read these books.

I read them all last year, and would read them again in a heartbeat.