Customer Reviews

Spilling the Beans

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

I've enjoyed the author as a TV cook, her humor and style as one of the Two Fat Ladies was delightful. I own many of her books and have enjoyed both the cookbooks and the country books. This book about her life was a suprise to me as I had no clue she was from an abusive home. I have such respect for her. In this age of whiny delicate little flowers (BLECCH!) I admire her strength of character and ability to be thankful for her life, accepting both good and bad with dignity and grace.

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.

I really liked this book, despite the fact that Clarissa rambles a bit. I was sort of like sitting down with a friend and catching up, with the sort of discursiveness that sometimes happens in that sort of conversation. This is a book with a lot of sad times interspersed with hilarious anecdotes. Clarissa is a woman of strong opinions. I don't always agree with her, but I think she'd be a lot of fun to have as a friend (seeing how I like friends with strongly held opinions). If you think the "nanny state" is a bad thing, thing that self-sufficiency and local production is a good thing, if you like good food, and a good tale you'll probably enjoy this book. Clarissa has managed to pick up the pieces of a life gone very wrong and come out on top. She hasn't come out on top in the sense that she's gotten rich or even enormously famous (far fewer people even know who she is than know who Brad Pitt is for instance). She's come out on top because she's found a way to live that is satisfying and which has made a difference to a lot of people.

The stories of The Two Fat ladies videos make them even more fun to watch. I really wish there were a video series to go with her book on the green life. I'd really love to see Clarissa mucking about with the ducks and the chickens and making things in the old fashioned way.

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!

Clarissa Dickson Wright was born into the upper class of British society. Viewed from afar, her life should have been idyllic -- money, position, famous father, etc. but the reality was quite different.
Wright survived a painful childhood, became a barrister, but ultimately was felled by alcoholism and lost her career, her wealth, and her trim figure BUT she never lost her sense of humor or her tenacity to ultimately survive. Wright is a clever and funny writer who tells her story at a brisk pace. The reader is swept along as Wright's addiction swallows her life and we are carried out the other side of the abyss as Wright begins the journey from alcoholic to recovered alcoholic and on to her very successful career on television as one of the Two Fat Ladies. I admit to not being remotely interested in cooking and to have not seen her television program (which having read this book, I'm sorry that I haven't seen it) nevertheless, she is an interesting person and she writes entertainingly and unapologetically about her experiences on her life journey. She very effectively makes the point that AA helped her overcome alcoholism but she does it without ever appearing to be preachy. Clarissa Dickson Wright is a survivor and it's good that she chose to share her story.

"Spilling the Beans" is an autobiographical account of Clarissa Dickson Wright's life and battle with addiction. She is half of the "Two Fat Ladies" UK cooking show. It was an interesting read, full of history and wit but a bit sad with parent issues, alcohol issues. Happily she has continued in recovery. She is a brilliant and unconventional woman. This book came to me from the UK in rapid time, was in excellent condition and I am very pleased with the book and service.

How fun to get to know a woman of such character. Her story is honest and forthright. How is that a brilliant and wealthy woman could reach homelessness? She overcame her past as few people do. As an American I simply do not comprehend some English phrases but beyond that I enjoyed the story and its outcome immensely! Keep on doin' what you do, Clarissa!

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.

Although I'm an American, I have to admit that I've always had a soft spot for British humor and their direct opinions on things. I too was drawn to Clarissa first when I saw her on 'two fat ladies' and who in their right mind woudln't be. Even then I could see that there was more to Clarissa's story then was being broadcast and 'Spilling the Bean's' fills in those very important details that were left out. By far the best autobiography I've read. Clarissa if you're reading this, thanks for sharing your life with the rest of us. Cheers!