I feel serene about death.. but I've got my 90th birthday party planned after chemo is finished

Dame Joan Bakewell has newly discovered the benefits of a lunchtime nap. And no one could blame her.

- EMILY RETTER

Yesterday was her 90th birthday and she is 12 chemotherapy sessions into treatment after an operation before Christmas to remove colon cancer.

Yet I notice she doesn't seem to be factoring one in the day we speak - she's heading out to meet a friend for lunch.

The powerhouse broadcaster, journalist, writer and Labour peer, who has been working pretty relentlessly for over six decades, is not a napper by nature.

"I don't let the age number count very much," she says, characteristically sharp, but with a warm grin.

She's good fun. The roomy wine rack in her kitchen, discarded pain au chocolat on the side, and piles of Anthony Horowitz crime thrillers next to Art Quarterly on the coffee table, confirm it.

Yet she will concede to a nap now if she's working - which, never mind the chemo and the 90th, she will be later this month, shifting her treatment around so she can film Portrait Artist of the Year which she co-hosts with Stephen Mangan - for Sky Arts for two weeks.

She will allow them to provide a pullout bed and duvet. "I recommend it, I tell you," she urges.

She chirpily says she has moved her 90th party to September after the chemo is finished, but for all her stoicism admits the news of her cancer after a routine colonoscopy last year shocked her.

"I've never been ill, I don't expect to be ill," she explains. "The first thing I did was ring my daughter and say, 'My will is in the third drawer down in the desk.

But quickly, a calmness overtook fear. "I thought 'Oh, it's my turn. My turn to go down. So I felt quite serene about it."