Jane Hawking first met her future husband – the world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking – at a party when she was a teenager living in St Albans.

Married to Stephen for 30 years, Jane cared for him and their three children after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and initially given just two years to live.

“Honestly, I don’t know how I did it,” remembers Jane, who will speak about her life, and memoir Travelling to Infinity, at the second Flamstead Book Festival on Saturday, June 6.

The 71-year-old continues: “When Stephen was first diagnosed we weren’t actually going out together but I was already falling in love with him.

“He had this amazing sense of humour so we were always laughing. Also I was young and had lots of energy and enthusiasm and that did make a difference.

“Most importantly, I loved Stephen and wanted to do my best for him. I thought I could easily devote two years of my life to help somebody I loved and who had so much potential to achieve his ambitions.

“But being Stephen’s carer was such a struggle. And it’s a lonely job looking after a disabled person. Sometimes life was just so dreadful, so physically and mentally exhausting.

“At first I was reluctant to admit it, but actually I think I’m doing people a disservice if I don’t admit how extreme the demands on a carer are.”

It was when her former headmistress, Miss Hilary Gent, from St Albans High School for Girls asked how she was coping, that Jane first faced up to the stark reality of her struggle to care for her husband.

She recalls: “She (Hilary Gent) looked at me searchingly and went on... you have struggled for so long alone. I don’t know how you have managed.

“She had shown herself sensitive to my tiredness and low morale over a number of years and done her quiet best to help by writing formal but encouraging letters and putting me in touch with old girls from St Albans who had come to live in Cambridge.”

In 2007, Jane’s memoirs were published and later adapted into last year’s Oscar-winning film the Theory of Everything, starring Eddie Redmayne as Stephen and Felicity Jones as Jane.

“I remember when I first saw Eddie (Redmayne) on set I was dumbstruck because there was Stephen as he was in the 1960s coming towards me,” confesses Jane, who separated from Stephen in 1990 and later divorced.

She continues: “When I then saw Felicity I was completely taken aback because she had captured my gestures, my movements, my speech patterns. It was very peculiar!

“But both Stephen and I agreed it’s a great privilege to have a film made about our lives, a great compliment.”

Jane still lives just ten minutes away from Stephen in Cambridge with her second husband Jonathan, and they often meet for family get-togethers with the Hawking family.

Although she rarely makes public appearances, Jane is set to join thriller writer Sophie Hannah at the festival, which starts on Friday, June 5 in the historic setting of St Leonard’s Church in the village centre.

The line-up also features acclaimed children and young person’s author Alex Scarrow, best known for his TimeRiders series, Michael Calvin, who ghosted rugby star Gareth Thomas’ controversial biography Proud, and St Albans author Ian Ridley who has written acclaimed memoirs of former England and Arsenal captain Tony Adams and Herts-born referee Mark Halsey.

Proceeds from the weekend will help support the Friends of St Leonard’s to raise funds to restore and safeguard medieval wall paintings in the village church.

Flamstead Book Festival – Books in the Belfry, St Leonard’s Church, Flamstead, June 5 to 6.

For a programme of events and to book tickets visit flamsteadbookfestival.com, or buy tickets from Coffee Dog, High Street, Flamstead on Wednesdays or Saturdays from 10am to 11am.