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Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 Early life  





2 Career  



2.1  Early career  





2.2  Cooking and television  





2.3  Later years  







3 Death  





4 Books  





5 Audio books  





6 Forewords written  





7 Television  





8 Awards  





9 DVD release  





10 Reception  





11 References  





12 External links  














Clarissa Dickson Wright






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Clarissa Dickson Wright
Dickson Wright at a fundraising dinner for the Countryside Alliance in 2011
Born(1947-06-24)24 June 1947
Died15 March 2014(2014-03-15) (aged 66)
Edinburgh, Scotland
Occupation(s)Television personality, celebrity cook, actress, businesswoman, author, barrister
Years active1996–2014

Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmerelda Johnston Dickson Wright[1] (24 June 1947 – 15 March 2014) was an English celebrity cook, television personality, writer, businesswoman, and former barrister.[2] She was best known as one of the Two Fat Ladies, with Jennifer Paterson, in the television cooking programme. She was an accredited cricket umpire and one of only two women to become a Guild Butcher.

Early life[edit]

Dickson Wright was born in St John's Wood, London,[3] the youngest of four children.[4][5] Her father, Arthur Dickson Wright,[6][7] was a surgeon to the Royal Family who had served with the Colonial ServiceatSingapore,[8] and her mother, Aileen Mary (Molly) Bath,[3] was from "a well known and respected Singapore family".[9][2] She said her father was an alcoholic who subjected his wife and children to verbal and physical abuse.[10]

At the age of 11, Wright was sent to the Convent of the Sacred Heart, an independent school for girls in the coastal town of HoveinSussex, and then to the Convent of the Sacred HeartatWoldingham. After school, Wright studied for a law degree at University College London, and undertook her pupillage to become a barristeratGray's Inn.[2][11]

Career[edit]

Early career[edit]

Dickson Wright was called to the bar in 1970.[2] She later claimed (although she turned 23 that year) that this occurred when she was aged 21, and that she was the youngest woman ever to be called to the bar.[12][13] After her mother died of a heart attack in 1975, she inherited a considerable sum of money, which by her own account she squandered over the next eight years. Her mother's death, combined a year later with that of her father, who spent his final years aphasic and requiring the use of a wheelchair after a stroke,[9][8] left her in a deep depression, and she drank heavily for the following 12 years.[11]

In 1979, Dickson Wright took control of the food at a drinking club in St James's Place in London. While there she met a fellow alcoholic named Clive (whose surname she never revealed);[2] they had a relationship until his death in 1982 from kidney failure at the age of 40.[2] Shortly thereafter she was disbarred[12] for practising without chambers.[14] Dickson Wright said that, during her alcoholic years, she had sex with an MP behind the Speaker's chair in the House of Commons.[2]

In the early 1980s, she was homeless and staying with friends.[15] For two years she was cook-housekeeper for a family in Sussex until she was sacked for her alcohol-induced behaviour.[16] After being charged with drink-driving, Dickson Wright started to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, counselling, and a detox centre.[2] She attended the Promis Recovery Centre at Nonington.[14] In her 2009 book Rifling Through My Drawers she expressed a belief in reincarnation. She was a keen supporter of hunting.[17][18]

Cooking and television[edit]

BBC2 commissioned a series of Two Fat Ladies. Four series were made and shown around the world. Paterson died in 1999 midway through the fourth series.[19]

Later years[edit]

Two Fat Ladies ended after Paterson's death. Dickson Wright appeared with Sir Johnny ScottinClarissa and the Countryman from 2000 to 2003 and played the gamekeeper in the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous in 2003.[11] In 2004 she closed her Edinburgh cookery book shop due to bankruptcy and lost the contract to run a tearoom at Lennoxlove, the seat of the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon.[20] In 2005, Dickson Wright took part in the BBC reality television show Art School.

Dickson Wright was elected as Rector of the University of Aberdeen in November 1998, the university's first female rector.[11][21] Her autobiography, Spilling the Beans, was published in September 2007. In 2008, she presented a one-off documentary for BBC Four, Clarissa and the King's Cookbook, where she makes recipes from a cookbook dating to the reign of Richard II.[22]

Along with racehorse trainer Sir Mark Prescott, Dickson Wright was charged with hare coursing with dogs in North Yorkshire in March 2007 under a private prosecution lodged by the International Fund for Animal Welfare under the Hunting Act 2004.[23][24][25] On 1 September 2009, she and Prescott pleaded guilty and received an absolute dischargeatScarborough Magistrates' Court. They said that they were invited to the event by the Yorkshire Greyhound Field Trialling Club, which told the court that it believed it was running a legal event by using muzzled dogs.[24]

In October 2012, Dickson Wright appeared on Fieldsports Britain to discuss badgers and their nutritional value, saying: "There's going to be a cull, so rather than just throw them in the landfill site, why not eat them?"[26] In November 2012, she presented a short BBC4 TV series on the history of the British breakfast, lunch and dinner. She was a supporter of the Conservative Party[27][28] and lived in Inveresk, Scotland.[29]

In her later years, Wright was known for her criticism and opposition to anti-hunting groups and vegetarianism.[30] She supported hare coursing and a diet consisting of lots of red meat, butter and cream.[30]

Death[edit]

Dickson Wright died in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on 15 March 2014, aged 66, from pneumonia relating to an undisclosed illness.[18][31][32]

Her funeral mass was held in Edinburgh at St Mary's Cathedral on 7 April, after which she was cremated.[33]

Books[edit]

Cookery books:

Memoirs:

Miscellaneous:

Audio books[edit]

Forewords written[edit]

Television[edit]

SERIES:

GUEST APPEARANCES:

Awards[edit]

2008 BA/Nielsen BookData Author of the Year Award.

DVD release[edit]

The Two Fat Ladies DVD set contains a 40-minute BBC tribute to Paterson that aired in 2004. The DVD box set was released in the United States of America in July 2008. The Acorn Media release contains all 24 episodes across four discs. The show had been released in Britain as a Region 2 DVD set.

Reception[edit]

Her A History of English Food was described by The Independent as "richly informative" and "surely destined for classic status". The reviewer noted that she had seen badger hams on the bar in the West Country pubs of her childhood, and that a tripe seller in Dewsbury market sold "nine different varieties of tripe, including penis and udder (which is remarkably like pease pudding)."[36]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Morris, Steven (17 March 2014). "TV chef Clarissa Dickson Wright dies". theguardian.com. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  • ^ a b c d e f g h Cassandra Jardine (6 September 2007). "Clarissa Dickson Wright: 'I do like to bait people'". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2 September 2009.
  • ^ a b Who's Who 2012
  • ^ Ennever, Barry. "Clarissa DICKSON-WRIGHT Born:  24 Jun 1947 Marylebone District, London Died:  15 Mar 2014 Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland: Welcome to the web site dedicated to recording the family history of the Ennevers and Enevers and our related families. You can search for individuals, display family trees, calculate relationships, read family histories and view family photographs and other historical documents. There are currently 12 family branches with more than 30,000 people and 4,000 unique surnames on the site, including over 2,000 Ennevers, Enevers, Enivers, Ennevors and other early variations". www.ennever.com. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  • ^ Pardoe, Tim. "Clarissa Dickson Wright – Transcript of Interview from 'Desert Island Discs'". timpardoe.co.uk.
  • ^ "Arthur Dickson Wright, MS FRCS". Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 58 (4): 333–334. 1976. PMC 2493718. PMID 782329.
  • ^ James, Geraint (2016). "Arthur Dickson Wright (1897–1976): Surgeon, Wit and Eccentric". Journal of Medical Biography. 6 (2): 68–72. doi:10.1177/096777209800600202. PMID 11619989. S2CID 11440931.
  • ^ a b "Wright, Arthur Dickson (1897–1976)". Pilar's lives of the Fellows. Royal College of Surgeons of England.
  • ^ a b Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, vol. 58, issue 4, July 1976, p. 333, "Arthur Dickson Wright, MS FRCS"
  • ^ "Clarissa Dickson Wright didn't just survive an abusive father, she outed him". The Guardian. 17 March 2014.
  • ^ a b c d "Presenter biographies". BBC. Archived from the original on 26 June 2004.
  • ^ a b Nigel Farndale (13 September 2009). "Clarissa Dickson Wright: 'They don't call me Krakatoa for nothing'". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 24 September 2009.
  • ^ Holden-Brown, Heather (20 March 2014). "Clarissa Dickson Wright: witty, opinionated, acerbic but a true friend to all". BookBrunch. Archived from the original on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  • ^ a b "Clarissa Dickson Wright – obituary" 17 March 2014, The Daily Telegraph
  • ^ "Two Fat Ladies Chef Clarissa Dickson Wright Dies at 66" Archived 17 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine, ABC News 17 March 2014
  • ^ "Clarissa Dickson Wright: Broadcaster, cook and former barrister who found worldwide fame as one of television's 'Two Fat Ladies' ", The Independent 18 March 2014
  • ^ Rifling through my Drawers Hachette UK, 2009 ISBN 9781848944237
  • ^ a b "TV chef Clarissa Dickson Wright dies", Guardian, 17 March 2014
  • ^ Clarissa, Dickson Wright (January 2000). "Larger Than Life". Waitrose. Archived from the original on 7 August 2007.
  • ^ "One fat lady puts up the shutters". Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  • ^ "Fat lady wins in university rector race". The Herald. 27 November 1998. Retrieved 14 April 2019.
  • ^ Banks-Smith, Nancy (8 May 2008). "Last night's TV". The Guardian. [dead link]
  • ^ "TV chef facing hare hunt charges". BBC. 25 September 2007.
  • ^ a b "TV chef admits hunting offences". BBC. 1 September 2009.
  • ^ "Top TV Chef Facing Court Over Hare Coursing". Yahoo!. 25 September 2007.[permanent dead link]
  • ^ Fieldsports Britain. "Fieldsports Britain : Shooting badgers and wheelchair guns". fieldsportschannel.tv. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
  • ^ "BBC NEWS – UK – UK Politics – Election 2005 – Who's backing whom at the election?". BBC. 21 April 2005. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  • ^ Moreton, Cole (23 September 2012). "Clarissa Dickson Wright: 'I go to Mass to say thank you'". Retrieved 28 August 2018 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  • ^ Dickson Wright, Clarissa (2012). Clarissa's England: A gamely gallop through the English counties. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 9781444729139.
  • ^ a b "Wright, Clarissa Dickson (1947–2014)". oxforddnb.com. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  • ^ "Tributes at Clarissa Dickson Wright funeral". Edinburgh News. Retrieved 28 August 2018.
  • ^ "TV chef Clarissa Dickson Wright dies aged 66", The Scotsman, 17 March 2014.
  • ^ "Tributes at Clarissa Dickson Wright funeral". Edinburgh Evening News. 8 April 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  • ^ Dickson Wright, Clarissa (July 2015). Ancestors and Rellies. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1444784190.
  • ^ The Critical. "A review of A History of English Food by Clarissa Dickson Wright & its reviewers with commentary on the character of some newspapers". British Food in America. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  • ^ Hirst, Christopher (21 September 2012). "A History of English Food, By Clarissa Dickson Wright". The Independent. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  • External links[edit]

    Academic offices
    Preceded by

    Allan Macartney

    Rector of the University of Aberdeen
    1998–2004
    Succeeded by

    Robin Harper


    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Clarissa_Dickson_Wright&oldid=1234989422"

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