Barbra Streisand finds it "joyous" to be with her grandchildren

Barbra - who has son Jason, 58, with ex-husband Elliott Gould and is married to James Brolin - told People magazine:"I had asked my daughter-in-law, who's also a photographer, to bring the children over and take some pictures with me. The kids were walking toward me, and I was standing behind a screen door, and I said, 'Oh Kathryn, take this picture right now.'

"The point is, the feeling whenever they're here is just joyous. It's very, very special...

"It's wonderful to have family. And that's how The Secret of Life title came - [the secret] is several things, but one of them is family,"

The album is Barbra's first in almost seven years, and features duets with the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan and Tim McGraw, but the Funny Girl star admitted she wasn't sure she was up to recording after the extensive process of recording the audiobook version of her memoir xx left her "hoarse".

She said: "I hadn't sung in a long time so I didn't know if I had a voice left."

But Barbra has no plans to give up her career and she still particularly loves recording new music.

She said: "As long as I have a voice, I love the privacy of recording.

"I love standing there in front of the mic with the music in my ears and singing, and there are more songs I want to sing. And I even have my original list of songs I've wanted to sing [since I was 18 years old]."

Barbra began her career when she was 13 years old and she'd advise her younger self to trust her instincts.

Asked what she'd have told her younger self, she said: "I'd tell her, 'Believe in yourself, believe in your choices. Believe in what you hear, what you feel.' I did it instinctively."