Does she consider herself political? "Yes, living is political. The choices you make, the people you condone or do not condone. What you want to do with your life, how you want to connect with other people, how you want to use the time you're living here." What makes her most angry today, she says, is the way wealthy countries abuse asylum seekers. For many years she has been a Unicef ambassador. She tells me about a boy she fostered who had lost his parents in the bloodshed of Sierra Leone's civil war. "He hated everybody when he came, especially me, because he had never had anybody. Now he is the most wonderful generous person - he calls me Mummy."

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