Dame Penelope Keith, a great supporter of the armed forces, readily agreed to become patron of readingforce.org.uk – an organisation connecting military families through shared reading.
Her much-celebrated voice was initially overwhelming. What quickly shone through was her commitment to the practical: “What can I do to help?”
Last November she and the broadcaster Janet Ellis delivered a programme of war writing in Aldershot. Dame Penelope pored over suggestions from the war poetry scholar Jane Potter and me, offering additions she had “accumulated”. A memorable item from the mother of her close friend the actor John Warner went to him with Epsom Salts to avoid “faulty elimination of bowels”.
The pay-off was immaculate: “Several of those present in the minesweepers on D-day have made it clear that the last thing they needed was a dose of salts.”
