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'Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmerelda Dickson Wright' (born 28 June 1947) is an English celebrity chef who is best known as one half, along with Jennifer Paterson, of the ''Two Fat Ladies''. Having trained as a lawyer, Dickson Wright is also the youngest woman ever to be called to the Bar.

Contents

Early life

Alcoholic years

Cooking career

External links

References

Early life

Clarissa Dickson Wright was born, with eleven forenames, in St John's Wood in London in 1947, the youngest of four children.^[1][2] Her father, Arthur Dickson Wright, who was a surgeon to the Royal Family, and her mother Molly was an Australian heiress. Born to a wealthy family, she had a Catholic childhood and grew up in a nine-bedroom house in St. John's Wood that was staffed with several servants. Dickson Wright's father was an alcoholic who subjected his wife and children to verbal and physical abuse continuing to Clarissa Dickson Wright's adulthood, although this is a claim that her older sister Heather has always denied.^[3] At the age of 11, Clarissa Dickson Wright was sent to Sacred Heart School, a boarding school in Hove, East Sussex. After school she studied for the Bar at Gray's Inn while doing a law degree at University College London. At the age of 21, Dickson Wright passed her exams and became the country's youngest barrister. Her mother died of a heart attack in 1975 and she inherited £2.8 million. Her mother's death, combined a few years later with her father's, quashed her ambition and she took to drink for the following 12 years.^[4]

Alcoholic years

In 1979, Clarissa Dickson Wright took control of the food at a drinking club in St James's Place in London. While there she met Clive, a fellow alcoholic and they had a relationship until his death in 1982 from kidney failure aged 40. Shortly after she was disbarred for practising without chambers. Dickson Wright claims that during her alcoholic years she had sex with a MP behind Speaker's chair in the House of Commons. Her alcoholism had worsened and by 1983 she was homeless and staying with friends. For two years she was a cook-housekeeper for a family in Sussex until she was sacked for her alcohol-induced behaviour. Dickson Wright was charged with drink-driving and following this started to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, counselling and a detox centre.^[5] In 1987, she attended a recovery centre called Promis in Kent and after ten weeks she left recovered.

Cooking career

Seven months after leaving Promis, Dickson Wright offered to run ''Books For Cooks'', a shop and cafe in Portobello Road, London, for the shop's owner.^[6] After seven years, the owner decided to sell the shop, and as Dickson Wright did not have the money to buy it she was sacked. She then moved to Edinburgh and ran the ''Cooks Book Shop''. During her time there, television producer Patricia Llewellyn asked her and Jennifer Paterson if they wanted to make a television programme and in autumn 1994 a pilot was made. After the pilot, BBC2 commissioned a series of ''Two Fat Ladies''. Three successful series were made and shown around the world. Paterson died in 1999 mid-way through the fourth series.^[7]
After Paterson's death, no more episodes of ''Two Fat Ladies'' were made, and Dickson Wright appeared with Johnny Scott in ''Clarissa and the Countryman'' from 2000 to 2003 and played the gamekeeper in the sitcom ''Absolutely Fabulous'' in 2003. Dickson Wright has campaigned for the Countryside Alliance and was the first female Rector of the University of Aberdeen. Her autobiography, ''Spilling The Beans'', was published in September 2007.

External links

★

★ Clarissa Dickson Wright at BBC Food

References

1. Confessions of One Fat Lady Clarissa Dickson Wright
2. Clarissa Dickson Wright - Transcript of Interview from 'Desert Island Discs' Tim Pardoe
3. Two angry ladies Frances Hardy
4. Presenter biographies
5. 'I do like to bait people' Cassandra Jardine
6. Clarissa Dickson Wright: The Fat Lady spills the beans Dickson Wright Clarissa
7. Larger Than Life Dickson Wright Clarissa