Bestselling cookery writer and owner of Norwich football club, Delia Smith, has spoken of her admiration for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, and also of what the Church and football have in common.

Smith, who has written several books over the years influenced by her Catholic faith, spoke to the Religion Media Centre on the anniversary of the start of the war in Ukraine, saying President Zelensky’s New Year’s Eve address to the people of Ukraine would be enough to restore anyone’s faith in humanity.

The 81-year-old doyenne of British cooking said the conflict illustrates her steadfast faith in the human spirit. “What we’re seeing in Ukraine is what can happen when humans … come together as one and they are determined to retain their freedom,” she said. “If anybody is listening to this now and they lose a little bit of faith in humanity they should watch Zelensky’s New Year’s Eve address to his people … [it] would be enough to understand what we have in human life and we have to fight for it and they’re fighting for it.”

Smith, whose recipes are so popular they have been known to lead to supermarkets selling out of certain ingredients, said: “What is wonderful about football and what is wonderful about church is people being community and coming together. If you don’t belong to a church, you don’t go to a church, that doesn’t matter. It’s the community that’s the most important thing about it.”

Smith’s book ‘You Matter: The Human Solution’, which she brought out last year, follows previous nods to her faith, including A Feast for Lent, A Feast for Advent and Journey into God.