Clarissa Dickson Wright's SPILLING THE BEANS: "Riveting Glimpse of a Life Few of Us Can Imagine"

Book critic Judy Alter offers a review of Clarissa Dickson Wright's memoir, Spilling the Beans, a moving and honest account of her life before after her stint as one of the beloved Two Fat Ladies: "If you remember the BBC show, "Two Fat Ladies," you'll recognize the woman on the cover of Spilling the Beans—a bit dumpy, a bit rumpled, standing in the English countryside (or perhaps Scottish) with a smile on her broad face and no make-up, no pretensions. Clarissa Dickson Wright was the one who rode in the sidecar, in the motorcycle driven by Jennifer Paterson in the most successful cooking show ever, eventually watched by seventy million people worldwide. Her memoir is as zany and energetic as the show, and Wright's ironic, witty voice bursts off every page.

That happy cover picture belies what lies inside these pages. Wright came from an extremely dysfunctional family and was beaten, mostly as an adult, by her alcoholic father, who once broke two of her ribs and another time tried to ram her head into a marble mantel in what she thought was a sincere attempt to kill her. Nineteen years younger than her older sister, she became the ally and protector of her mother, her beloved Mollypop. In spite of her father's refusal to support her efforts, she studied law and became the youngest woman ever called to the Bar in England.

Her successful legal career ended after the unexpected and sudden death of her mother, a loss from which Clarissa found oblivion in drink. For years she was the kind of wild, outrageous, carefree alcoholic who couldn't remember the day before. She was disbarred, penniless and homeless when she finally sought treatment, a long and arduous learning lesson from which she emerged with the clear knowledge that she could never drink again.

In her drinking years, she discovered that she loved to cook and hired out to various commercial operations and once for a family where she cooked an elaborate ten-course meal. The next day she couldn't remember what she cooked or if she had cleaned the kitchen (it was spotless!). Sober, she worked several years in a cookbook shop, then moved to Scotland, opened her own bookstore and branched out into catering. A mutual friend introduced her to Jennifer and came up with the proposed series. BBC liked it, and they were internationally famous.

After Jennifer's death, Wright made a series of specials with her friend Johnny Coleman, called Clarissa and the Countryman, promoting the values of coursing and hunting at a time when England was near banning fox hunting (which it has since done). They caused a furor of protest, and she was sometimes in danger but still enjoyed the touring and signings. Her television career ended, but she says today, "I have an enjoyable life."

Wright is a great story-teller but she is also brutally frank about herself, her drinking and periods of promiscuity, and the peace she found in sobriety. Some of her stories are sad but a lot are funny, like the time Jennifer's motorcycle went out of control and they careened toward a terrified cameraman, swerved at the last minute toward some rugby players, and finally came to a halt without any damage. Spilling the Beans is riveting, giving a glimpse into a life few of us can imagine."

More Praise for Clarissa Dickson Wright's SPILLING THE BEANS

Another stellar review for Clarissa Dickson Wright's Spilling the Beans: "Clarrisa Dickson Wright is one half of British television’s Two Fat Ladies cooking team. When her autobiography was first published in the UK in 2007, it was met with wide acclaim. It’s not hard to see why.

The first official U.S. edition becomes available this month from Overlook Press and it’s a surprisingly complete book. In a way, Spilling the Beans has everything: fame, celebrity, addiction, heartbreak... and, of course, food. Lots and lots of food.

The only reason I can think of that it’s taken this long for Spilling the Beans to get to this side of the water is the very real possibility that a lot of people in the U.S. have never heard of Two Fat Ladies, or at least, had not until 2008 when the series that ended in 1998 after the death of Dickson Wright’s cooking partner, Jennifer Paterson, was released here.

Spilling the Beans recounts some of that time but the Fat Ladies years are only a small part of Dickson Wright’s journey to date. At its core, Spilling the Beans is a story of redemption. About the little rich girl -- Dickson Wright, of course -- with an abusive, alcoholic father. She grows to be a brilliant young woman (and ends up being the youngest woman in the UK ever called to the bar), a dilettante (she ends up partying away a significant fortune), her recovery through AA, then traveling the English countryside in the sidecar of a motorcycle with the late Paterson.

This is a well told, joyous memoir that, for me, is all about finding your way back. Even those largely unfamiliar with Dickson Wright will enjoy her humor and wit." - Aaron Blanton, January Magazine

Clarissa Dickson Wright's SPILLING THE BEANS in Dallas Morning News

The irrepressible Clarissa Dickson Wright shot to fame as one half of The Two Fat Ladies, an enormously popular cooking show broadcast in both the UK and the U.S. Her new memoir is reviewed by Michelle Jones in the Dallas Morning News: "Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson became famous for traipsing around the United Kingdom in motorcycle and sidecar, cooking multicourse traditional English meals and showing bits of gorgeous scenery along the way. Their wry comments drew legions of fans to Two Fat Ladies, even those who didn't cook. Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright escaped life's problems traveling the English countryside in search of great food and high adventure.

The same irreverence and wit so loved in TFL, as the TV series was fondly called, is also found in Clarissa Dickson Wright's memoir, Spilling the Beans. The book reached the top spot on British book charts and is now being released on this side of the Pond. Before TFL, which was translated into 11 languages and shown around the world, including on the Food Network, Wright's life had all the ups and downs required for a juicy memoir: abuse, addiction, the loss of a great love and-or large sums of money, and subsequent recovery. Despite all that personal history to cover, Wright's book manages to transcend its genre and enter the realm of cultural history, offering insight into the British aristocracy (Wright's background) and legal community (her former profession) as well as London in the 1960s and 1970s.

She recalls meeting Queen Mary (the current monarch's grandmother) and going to Paddington Station to see the coffin of George VI (QEII's father). Her family home was filled with politicians, entertainers, artists and other fashionable people. Wright's father was a distinguished surgeon descended from a formidable medical family. Ancestors had found cures for malaria and hung out with Arthur Conan Doyle (and, Wright suspects, supplied him with cocaine). Her father attended the Queen Mother and developed a procedure for treating varicose veins. The family also had a darker side. Her father's drunken abuse of Wright and her mother hung over her childhood and adolescence. She writes matter-of-factly about the attacks; the worst part, she says, was the wearying, crushing anticipation of the next episode, of having to be on constant alert. She chose a profession mainly to spite her father, but it also suited her. "It was 1969 and life was brilliant," she writes. Paul and Linda McCartney lived next door, and Cherie and Tony Blair were fellow law students. Wright began to unravel upon the sudden death of her mother, but did so with humor and panache. She was "rich, good-looking and kept the pain at bay on a wave of champagne ..." Her downfall was a whirl of parties and a surprising amount of good food.

Food plays an integral role in Spilling the Beans, whether Wright is preparing meals, railing against supermarkets or remembering delicious salmon sandwiches. Food also helps her recover once she's spent her inheritance, gotten disbarred and become homeless. Reading about co-star Jennifer Paterson and various behind-the-scenes tales are, of course, a treat for any Two Fat Ladies fan.

Paterson was 20 years older, an avid motorcyclist and a heavy drinker with no intention of getting sober. She was brusque but also enormously protective of Wright. Spilling the Beans is less compelling after Paterson's death and the end of the TV show; the author's passion and campaigning for the English countryside holds less interest than the dramatic events of the first part of the book. But that's life. For the most part, Spilling the Beans is wonderful, written very much in Wright's unique and fascinating voice.

The Fat Lady Sings in SPILLING THE BEANS

One half of the Two Fat Ladies, Clarissa Dickson-Wright tells her own story in Spilling the Beans, just releasing to bookstores this week. Known all over the world for he role in the hit cooking show with partner Jennifer Paterson, Dickson-Wright's memoir was a number-one bestseller in the U.K. last year. Packed with marvelous anecdotes in an out of the kitchen, Spilling the Beans is a moving tale of an extraordinary life.

Clarissa was born into wealth and privilege, but her father, a brilliant surgeon, was an abusive drunk who forced her to eat carrots with slugs clinging to them. Determined and clever, Clarissa began a career in law and became the youngest woman ever to be called to the bar. But disaster struck when Clarissa s adored mother died suddenly. Clarissa turned to alcohol and partied away her entire inheritance. The road to recovery was long and hard, and Clarissa sought solace in the thing that had always brought her joy cooking. Two Fat Ladies became an international sensation and Clarissa found success, sobriety, and peace. Now, with the honesty and wit millions love her for, Clarissa recounts a life lived to extremes. A vivid and funny story, Spilling the Beans is also a brave and occasionally heartbreaking tale.