Mog's creator kills off the forgetful cat to help children understand death

The writer Judith Kerr has decided to kill off her popular creation, Mog the cat, after 32 years with a gentle introduction for young children to the concept of death.

In Goodbye Mog, published next month, Ms Kerr says a final farewell to the cat whose tales of mischief and adventure have notched up 3m sales since the first of 16 books came out in 1970.

Ms Kerr, whose family escaped Nazi Germany and fled to England, said she was now 79 and thoughts of death were inevitable.

Furthermore, having raised two children, Matthew, who grew up to become the Whitbread Prize-winning author of English Passengers, and Tacy, a film designer, she said she was well aware of children's interest in the subject.

"I didn't really decide that it was time for Mog to die. I just wanted to do something about dying," she said. "I'm 79 and one would be an idiot not to think about it at my age. And I just suddenly thought I must do something that nobody ever mentions too much."

Her books are designed to be read by parents to two to five-year-olds and by children up to the age of seven by themselves, but Ms Kerr insisted children of this age were not too young to cope.

"They do think about death and it seems to be important that they know that people don't, in fact, disappear – you can remember them. Pets die and grandparents die. We've had eight cats and they're all buried in the garden now. Each time it was sad.

"But I just wanted to say [to children], 'Remember them, but get on with your life'."

She added she had never written and illustrated a Mog book unless she had been inspired by a real-life incident, usually one that had happened to one of the family's own cats.

But although sales of Mog increased last year, she said: "I think I have probably done enough Mog books. One gets a bit tired of all those stripes."

Goodbye Mog, which will be published on 21 October by Collins Children's Books, tells how Mog was so "dead tired" she decided she wanted to sleep forever.

But although Mog does indeed die in the eyes of her family, a little part of her stays awake to see the arrival of a new baby kitten and to help her replacement settle in.