内容摘要：The best-selling author has been criticised for her views on gender identity and for arguing trans women should not be allowed into female-only spaces.

The best-selling author has been criticised for her views on gender identity and for arguing trans women should not be allowed into female-only spaces.

"We lived in the chalet, so you could have Freddie [Mercury] next door."She said there were other children who lived at the studios, so "it was just normal" in the local area, but, later in life, some jaws still drop when she divulges the tastes and palettes of some of Britain's most legendary artists.

"Mum said Freddie had quite a sophisticated palette, but not too rich," she said."The main she loved doing was Fanny Craddock's crêpes suzette."She'd go into the dining room and set it all on fire in front of Queen and they'd all clap."

While many would have bowed down to some of the stars that spent time at Rockfield, Joan ruled the roost as "queen of the kitchen", Ms Murray said."She was the matron and they were the boys of the school," Ms Murray said.

"Trying to control Motörhead was very interesting. I think she gave up on that one - particularly when my future stepfather, Fritz, was producing them and invited all these Hell's Angels down to record motorbike exhausts for a certain track."

Although Ms Murray's experiences inspired her memoir, which is peppered with her mother's Rockfield recipes, she also believes her mother was the muse for one particular hit song written by Freddie Mercury, with clues in the lyrics.Authorities in the German city of Cologne have defused three unexploded World War Two bombs after the evacuation of more than 20,000 people.

Bomb squad technicians deactivated the American bombs on Wednesday after evacuating an area of around 10,000 sq m (107,639 sq ft) following their discovery in a shipyard in Deutz on Monday.Homes, shops, hotels and schools were told to evacuate, as well as a large hospital and a major train station in what the city called "the largest operation since WW2".

Cologne was subjected to particularly heavy bombing during WW2 and unexploded ordnance can still pose a danger.Germany's bomb disposal service was only able to begin the operation after all residents in the densely populated area were evacuated.