She guarded her late husband’s literary legacy following his death in 1965.

Valerie Eliot also allowed Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats to be based on TS Eliot’s whimsical verses, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.

The stage show became a global hit that brought in huge sums for the Eliot estate, and enabled her to create Old Possum’s Practical Trust.

It has supported numerous arts and literacy charities and institutions and funded the TS Eliot Prize for Poetry.

Valerie Eliot edited many of TS Eliot’s poems for publication, including a much-praised edition of modernist masterpiece The Waste Land. —BBC News – TS Eliot’s widow Valerie dies aged 86.