Mourners remember novelist Bainbridge

Dame Beryl, whose acclaimed works included An Awfully Big Adventure and Master Georgie, died aged 77 at the beginning of this month after a short battle with cancer.

Writer AN Wilson, broadcasters Sue McGregor, Mark Lawson and Melvyn Bragg and former hostage Terry Waite were among hundreds of mourners at the church in Kentish Town, north London, near to where the Liverpool-born author lived.

Parish priest Father Graeme Rowlands told them the writer, shortlisted for the Man Booker award five times, put much of herself into her characters.

He added: "She was a superb granny. She was a bit in awe of her family for having grown up so sensibly. She loved babies. She talked to babies on the street. On her death bed, when she felt too ill to read, she asked for pictures of babies, any babies, to cheer her up."

Following the service, a cortege took the coffin, adorned with lilies, to Highgate Cemetery, whose other famous occupants include writer Douglas Adams and Karl Marx.