WIN Perriss confessed she was unsure about the secret of long life as she celebrated her 101st birthday.

Mrs Perriss’ birthday was on Monday, but celebrations were delayed until today so her only son, John, 68, could get back to the UK from a holiday in New Zealand.

Delighted by her 101st birthday, she said: “I’m an old lady now. I don’t know what has kept me going so long.

“I’ve just kept myself busy.”

To mark the occasion, the chef at Mrs Perriss’s care home baked a special cake decorated with daffodils, inspired by her favourite poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by the Lakeland poet William Wordsworth.

“I like a nice bit of cake and I plan on having a couple of slices,” she said.

Mrs Perriss, who was born and raised in south London, later moved to Worthing on the South Coast after marrying James Perriss. She moved to Oxfordshire after her husband passed away in 1978 to live in Hook Norton with her son, before moving on to live in the Cotswold Home, in Burford, in 1999.

She has three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.