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Clarissa Dickson Wright led a life “lived fearlessly and with conviction” her agents at hhb have said.
The author, a former barrister and one half of the BBC’s cooking duo "Two Fat Ladies", died at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary aged 66 on Saturday (15th March).
Her books include autobiography Spilling the Beans, which has sold nearly a quarter of a million copies via Nielsen BookScan, as well as Clarissa’s England: A gamely Gallop Through English Counties (both Hodder & Stoughton) and A History of English Food (Cornerstone).
Heather Holden-Brown and Elly James, both agents with the hhb agency, said: “Loved dearly by her friends and many fans all over the world, Clarissa was utterly non-PC and fought for what she believed in, always, with no thought to her own personal cost. Her fun and laughter, extraordinary learning and intelligence, will be missed always, by so many of us.”
Wright's career as a young barrister at Gray’s Inn was brought to an end after her battle with alcoholism. Her agents said: “On June 24th would have marked her 27th anniversary of ‘no drinking’, a birthday which meant much more to her than another year on the clock.”
Afterwards, Wright worked as a cook in a St James’s Club and in private houses, before she managed Books for Cooks in London’s Notting Hill. “The flood of letters to Clarissa paid testament to how the description of her own struggles had helped many other alcoholics and their families,” Holden-Brown and James said.
Wright was also a passionate supporter of the Countryside Alliance.