Spilling the Beans

by Clarissa Dickson Wright

Book Overview

As a child, Clarissa Dickson Wright was surrounded by wealth and privilege. Her mother was an Australian heiress, her father a brilliant surgeon to the Royal family. But he was also a tyrannical and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0340933895
• ISBN13: 9781444706413
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.9" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

The autobiography of the decade!

I first became acquainted with Clarissa Dickson Wright through her marvelous television program, Two Fat Ladies. After the death of Jennifer Paterson, I heard so much about her and her interesting life that I came to the conclusion that she was the more interesting of the Two Fat Ladies. Well, I could not have been more wrong! Clarissa was born into a family with an heiress mother and a rich and brilliant surgeon father - the father also being an abusive alcoholic who regularly beat his wife and children. Defying her father's wishes that she go into medicine, she instead studied law, and became the youngest woman ever to be call to the Bar! After her parents' deaths, she inherited a fortune, which she promptly began to blow through alcoholism and dissipated living. Eventually, she found herself disbarred, broke and homeless. In this fascinating book, Clarissa tells her story...and what a story it is! I must say that I enjoyed this book much more than I ever thought possible. I have read many autobiographies over my lifetime, but I do not think that I have ever read a more interesting and just plain shocking autobiography before - bar none! If you are familiar with the Two Fat Ladies, then you will really enjoy this autobiography, and the insight it gives you into Clarissa Dickson Wright. Heck, even if you have never seen the Two Fat Ladies, you will enjoy this book for its interesting writing and the absolutely fascinating life that it unfolds. Three cheers for the autobiography of the decade, and three cheers to Clarissa Dickson Wright for writing it! Buy this book, you won't be disappointed!

Candid, comical, entertaining, sobering

I've never viewed the television cooking program but was interested in hearing the story of how a brilliant member of England's aristocracy could squander her fortune and screw her life up so totally with excess alcohol and related bad decisions and then, through patience, persistence, and hard headed willpower achieve such remarkable success. If you're a fan of the cooking program, you'll especially enjoy the related insights.

An Inspirational Read and For fans of Two Fat Ladies

If you were a fan of 'Two Fat Ladies', are an Anglo-phile, or need an inspirational and funny read, this is your book. I spent the weekend devouring this memoir and enjoying every page. Clarissa writes with honesty and candor about her early life with an alcoholic and violent parent, her brilliant legal career, a devastating love life and loss, her despair and descent into alcoholism and her slow but steady rise to fame afterwards. Though she may have been born with every advantage, she lost it all, money, friends, home, career, and ultimately through courage and hard work became a self-made woman and rose to fame in the short-lived, but much loved cooking show, "Two Fat Ladies". A very enjoyable read.

An amazing autobiography...

Hilarious, frightening, shocking, exciting, and always readable, Clarissa Dickson Wright's autobiography depicts her rollercoaster of a life in a compelling but always sympathetic manner. One of the best memoirs in recent memory.