Clarissa Dickson Wright dies at 66

Clarissa Dickson Wright was someone who enjoyed life to the fullest.  Her career spanned being a barrister at Grey’s Inn, to working in two cookbook stores, to cooking in a club and most famously, travelling around the UK in a motorcycle and sidecar with Jennifer Paterson, as The Two Fat Ladies.

The Two Fat Ladies were unlikely TV stars – two overweight, middle-aged women, who loved food and life.  But their TV show became immensely popular, in the UK and around the world, and spawned numerous cookbooks.  Clarissa was also a lover of cookbooks, working in two cookbook stores – Books for Cooks in London’s Notting Hill and the Cook’s Book Shop in Edinburgh.  I remember her at Books for Cooks, doling out expert advice to anyone who asked.

In later life she became more controversial, with her opinions on hunting (pro) and badger culling (she suggested eating the carcasses and gave recipes). But she was always entertaining and was extremely knowledgeable on food history, especially British food. Her spokeswoman Heather Holden-Brown said “In recent years, she often said ‘I’ve had a fantastic life and I’ve done everything I could have wanted to do and more’.” What a great epitaph!

Read the obituaries in the BBC, The London Evening Standard, and The Guardian.