She's met Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin, danced for the Royal Opera and acted in films and, as if that isn't enough, raised two children - but 82-year-old Hammersmith children's author Lotte Moore isn't close to being ready to take it easy.

Having only started writing at the age of 70, she is now the author of two autobiographies and a total of 16 children's books, one of which has been adapted for stage and is playing at the Tabard Theatre until August 26.

Splitting her time between writing and visiting schools to speak about her childhood during World War Two, Lotte is dedicated to teaching the lessons of the war to the next generation but thinks they have as much to teach adults as the other way round.

Lotte Moore has become a prolific author since turning 70

She said: "I love children, more than adults, I feel very safe with them. They're straight-forward and they don't hurt your feelings, which unfortunately adults do all the time.

"Writing for children is brilliant because they love weird things, whereas most adults don't anymore. I think if more adults in this country retained their imaginations, they would be less angry because they could imagine something like being in a helicopter instead of feeling upset.

"I still have the most extraordinary, crazy imagination. I used to make up stories every night for my children and if you gave me a subject I could write about anything.

"I'm not one of those proper authors who churn out books every year, however, because I spend more time conversing and relating to children, which I think is as important."

Lotte draws inspiration from many sources, as varied as a news story her husband has read to a pair of helium balloons that seemed to follow her around the house.

She is keen to encourage similar creativity in children, even having kids from local schools draw the illustrations for some of her books, although she usually works with painter Philip Hood because he has "the same sense of humour".

One of Lotte's books, which was recently adapted for a production at the Tabard Theatre

She said: "Writing is actually a wonderful way of getting more confidence, even if you're not successful, because sharing how you feel with other people gets it off your chest and makes you realise you're not alone.

"I used to be a ballet dancer for the Royal Opera and an actor but when I had children I gave it up and devoted myself to being a good mother. When they left, I felt terribly lonely and a friend told me to write as a way of dealing with that.

"Now it helps me with the loneliness that is a part of old age. Even though I'm happily married I still feel lonely sometimes so I would hate the thought of being one of the old people stuck in their homes and not seeing anyone."

Writing might be imagined to come naturally to someone like Lotte, the granddaughter of famous English novelist, playwright and politician Sir Alan Herbert.

Certainly, it meant she had an interesting upbringing, meeting famous figures such as Winston Churchill - who her brother almost drowned - and Charlie Chaplin - who upset her and the other children by not acting like he did in his films.

But having been born into an illustrious family didn't spare Lotte from the hardships of the Second World War. At the age of four, she was sent away to Herefordshire and did not see her parents again for years, an experience she recounts in her book "Lotte's War".

One of Lotte's autobiographical books "Lotte's War"

She said: "I feel the legacy I must give to children before I die is to help them understand about life during the war. There's very little written about what being an evacuee was like.

"It's so moving to tell the story to children who know so little about it. It's the best thing I have ever done in my life and I want to reach all the schools I can before I die because I can get through to children who will be the next generation.

"Children now have everything they want, it's hard for them to understand that we didn't have anything.

"I think the biggest lesson they can learn from it is the spirit of sharing we had during that time and I have never felt that in my life since.

"Despite how little we had, we were only rarely unhappy. There's a terrible materialism nowadays and I just despair - children have no realisation of how much you can do without."

*Meet The Teaspoons, a play based on Lotte's book "The Teaspoon Family", is on at the Tabard Theatre until August 26. Find out more or book tickets by clicking here .