NOT many people can say they have met Adolf Hitler. As you’d expect, Ariel Crittall does not regard it as a highlight in her 94-year life.

But it is one of the more remarkable tales she reveals in a book which encompasses her life on the continent and in north Essex.

It was 1933, she was an 18-year-old studying in France and Germany and, at a dinner in Berlin, her aunt asked to meet the recently elected Chancellor, Adolf Hitler.

Ariel was fluent in French after studying in Paris for a year and her family thought she would do well to learn German.

She went, with her aunt Nancy, to Munich and, through meeting a variety of people, she attended a dinner in Berlin where she met a liaison officer, Putzi von Hanfstaengl.

He asked Nancy what she would like to do while in Berlin and she said she would like to meet Hitler.

He arranged it for both Nancy and Ariel for the next day.

It is not a subject Ariel would expand on, other than to say: “It was before one realised what an evil influence he would be.”

Ariel has amassed a fascinating collection of experiences from travelling the globe and being the matriarch of a close-knit family and wife of John Crittall, former boss of the Crittall Manufacturing Company, originally based in Braintree.

She has brought all her thoughts together in My Life – Smilingly Unravelled.

The book has taken about five years to put together.

On meeting Ariel, it is difficult not to take an interest, her character is, like the book, engaging.

The motivation for the memoirs was to document her life for her family, but also to give something back to Braintree District Museum, of which she was a trustee from 1990 to 2006.

She paid to print 700 copies, and half of the proceeds will go to the Manor Street museum.

She said: “I think it’s an excellent little museum and I was tremendously privileged to be a trustee all that time. I wanted to do anything I could to show my gratitude.”

Ariel, who has lived near Great Bardfield for 57 years after her husband fell in love with the area, had a privileged background.

She grew up at Orford House, in Ugley, Bishop’s Stortford, and although she was born into a successful family she suffered early heartbreak.

Ariel’s father, Archibald, was killed in the former Middle Eastern region of Mesopotamia while leading the Dorset Regiment at the start of the First World War. About a fortnight later Ariel was born.

She had a “sort of Edwardian background”, like something out of a novel. Her nanny was always scolding her and she used to flee on her horse.

She said: “When I was five or six, I used to creep down the back stairs and there was a big stable yard. In those days, it was about 1920, we had a groom and I would ask him to saddle up my pony, Topsy. Then I was able to escape from nanny.”

Ariel’s early education was at a school in Kensington, before studying at Queen’s College, London, and Hayes Court, near Bromley.

Ariel was married at Thaxted Church, aged 21, and had her first child, Harriet, at 23.

She had met John Crittall ice skating near Cambridge.

“I could not stand up,” she said.

“John skated beautifully. Every time I tried, I went a little way and crashed. I made him laugh so much that ten days later he was on the verge of proposing as he returned me home from watching a rugby match.”

She had to stop him as she was fearful of being late for dinner. Within weeks the couple announced their engagement and married in 1936.

At this time the Crittall Manufacturing Company, now Crittall Windows, was at its peak, trading successfully at home and abroad.

The company, now based in Witham, with an office in Glasgow, started out in Bank Street, Braintree, in 1896.

In 1907, it operated the first steel window factory in the United States, and its windows are used all over the world, including at Parliament. Possibly the biggest legacy is Silver End. The village was built in 1926 for workers of the company.

Ariel has many happy memories of life married to John.

They honeymooned in Paris and Italy. They began married life in Shalford, and Ariel recalls one of her first difficulties was having to learn how to cook, as she had been brought up with servants.

In later life she has had the chance to indulge her love of painting, hosting a number of exhibitions, something she was unable to do while raising four children.

John Crittall, a former magistrate and governor of Felsted School, died on July 1, 1980.

He was one of three men who were hugely significant in Ariel’s life, the other two being her grandfather William Tennant, know as Papa, and Orlando Gearing. Mr Gearing was someone she formed a strong friendship with in her later life.

She said: “He was an artist and a botanist. He was a gay man who I happened to share a lot of interests with. Not every widow has such good fortune.”

Ariel’s mind is still sharp. She regularly listens to Radio 3 and 4 and follows the news.

She said: “I think the MPs’ expenses were dreadful, absolutely shaming, and even worse were the bankers’ bonuses.”

She is regularly visited by her family – she now has six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren – and recalls the highlights in her life with a twinkle in her eye.

l In My Life – Smilingly Unravelled is available at Braintree District Museum, 3 Manor Street, Braintree, 01376 325266.