Emma Morano, the last living person born in 1800s, celebrates 117th birthday

Emma Morano says the secret to her longevity is eating three eggs a day, two of them raw, and a little raw minced meat.

Emma Morano, the world's oldest person, is preparing to celebrate her 117th birthday with friends and family - and a music and dance show celebrating a life that has spanned three centuries.

Morano was born on 29 November 1899, when Britain was at war with the Boers in South Africa. She was one of eight children - five sisters and three brothers - and is now the world's last living link to the 19th century.

The centenarian has become something of a celebrity - she has her own Wikipedia entry - and her long life will be marked by a party and concert organised by Verbania, the town in which she lives on the shores of Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.

The spectacle will recount her life, from her experiences during two World Wars to her work in a jute factory and her courageous decision to separate from an abusive husband at a time when divorce was frowned on.

Morano was officially recognised as the world's oldest person after the previous holder of the title, Susannah Mushatt Jones, died in New York in May.

One of her carers told The Telegraph then that the secret to her longevity was eating three eggs a day, two of them raw, and a little raw minced meat.

She has maintained the regime ever since a doctor advised her that it would be good for her health when she was diagnosed with anaemia at the age of 20.

Her social life is a bit limited - not just because her sight and hearing are failing, but because all her contemporaries are dead.

"Her friends are all in the cemetery, sadly," said Rosi Santoni, a 72-year-old relative who helps care for the old lady.

Morano was born in the village of Civiasco in the Piedmont region of northern Italy in 1899, the year in which Guglielmo Marconi first transmitted a radio signal across the English Channel.

She worked in a factory making jute sacks and then as a cook.

Aside from eating raw food, not smoking and drinking wine in moderation, she credits her longevity with having left a violent husband in 1938, shortly after the death of her only child at the age of seven months.

She remained single for the rest of her life.