Rifling Through My Drawers [Paperback]

Clarissa Dickson Wright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2011

Entertaining, poignant, and never politically correct, this heartfelt memoir offers a year in the life of one of today's most unique culinary experts

 

With her inimitable wit and outspoken views, acclaimed cooking guru Clarissa Dickson Wright provides an unrivaled collection of stories and anecdotes from her ever-eventful life in this touching memoir. As a celebrated cook and a champion of the countryside, Clarissa's year includes meeting with local farmers and supermarket managers, attending an oyster festival and county fairs, and encountering an adorable fishing terrier named Kipper. Introducing long-forgotten traditions and colorful local festivals alike, Clarissa meets up with a range of extraordinary characters and good friends old and new.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'A wealth of hilarious anecdotes and observations' -- Unite Magazine 'Delightfully outrageous' -- Scotsman 'The lady speaks her mind, whether it be on how literary festivals exploit authors or the idiocy of the Iraq war. The book is thus guaranteed to annoy everybody. And yet she gets away with it. The reasons are her honesty, courage and also the respect accorded to the Great British Eccentric, especially when posh. She will probably end up classified by the National Trust.' -- The Sunday Age 'informative, entertaining and forthright' -- Manchester Evening News 'It is amusingly unruly, with so many digressions and diversions that all the reader can do is go along for the ride and hope that by the end it all makes sense. Which it does, in a haphazard kind of way.' -- Sydney Morning Herald 'Larger than life and bubbling with caustic wit, Clarissa Dickson Wright is just the person to break through the recessionary gloom and make you chuckle.' -- Good Book Guide

About the Author

Clarissa Dickson Wright found fame alongside Jennifer Paterson as one half of the much-loved TV cooking partnership Two Fat Ladies. She is the author of five cookbooks, including The Game Cookbook, A Greener Life, and Sunday Roast, as well as her autobiography Spilling the Beans.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (February 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340977477
• ISBN-13: 978-0340977477
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.8 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #731,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compulsive, witty and thoroughly entertaining., November 7, 2009

By 

Alex Walters - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rifling Through My Drawers (Kindle Edition)

Though "Spilling the Beans" could be said to be more heartfelt Clarissa once again thrills the reader with witty stories and charming anecdotes. Her world and the people in it are wonderful and madcap just as she is herself.
If you look past the slightly rambling prose you fimd an enchanting read.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars LARGER THAN LIFE, April 29, 2010

By 

GREENACRES "BOOKSHOP" (AUSTRALIA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rifling Through My Drawers £large Print] (Paperback)

I LOVED THIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY - EVEN SHED A TEAR - CLARISSA FOR ALL HER BRAVADO IS SOFT HEARTED - UNLESS YOU ARE ONE OF GOD'S EDIBLE CREATURES - I ALMOST FELT THERE WOULD BE A REFERENCE TO CANNIBALISM - HOWEVER SHE SEEMS TO HAVE MISSED THAT ONE.
I IMMEDIATELY SENT AWAY FOR THE SECOND SPILLING THE BEANS SHE WRITES WELL AND IS A GOOD READ - HONEST HARDWORKING AND VERY BRIGHT - I LIKE HER.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flavor and Honesty, August 26, 2011

By 

Molly M (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rifling Through My Drawers (Paperback)

Flavor and honesty --could there be a better description of Clarissa Dickson Wright? It does pretty well for this book, too -- a journal, a month by month account of Ms. Dixon Wright's (incredibly hectic) life for one year, vivid, enlightening, empowering, touching -- and practical. To say that it's the story of one year is misleading -- bits of history and reminiscence and tales of earlier times abound. Though the stories touch on alcoholism and its effects only in passing, I'm getting copies for my recovering alcoholic friends -- most of whom cook and joke and tell stories extremely well, and keep chickens because they know what's good -- just like Ms. D-W, though I'd be surprised if she's currently harboring any chickens.

Natural history and ecology spring to life in the stories of photo shoots and real shoots and the vivid pictures of a post-hunting ban countryside. Not a political book, but Clarissa's and the countryside's dealings with the "antis" and the Health Nazis are a big (and often very funny) part of the year's tale.

Do you know what hound coursing is? I didn't. It's an ancient way of hunting rabbits (which mostly get away, in a proper hound course) with greyhounds. There's a lot of history in this one year...

Each month begins with a "saw" -- a country rhyme or aphorism: "A swarm in May/ Is worth a load of Hay," for instance.

And each month ends with a recipe -- a nice down to earth easy recipe, perhaps designed to let the ingredients shine out (and send us searching for flavor and honesty just like Clarissa does).

There are pictures -- a few -- one is a portrait of a coursing greyhound, and the most beautiful portrait I've ever seen, a dog magically about to speak words of great delight.

For reading addicts: a good companion to the great body of children's and gardening literature of the first half of the 2oth century, an entry into the world of the Beverley Nichols books about gardens and cottages, to the worlds of the characters in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons books.