jennifer paterson clarissa dickson wright

Her father, though basically miserly, did not stint on household bills. Growing up in Little Venice, Clarissa's first memory was of eating a hard-boiled egg and a cold sausage on a picnic at Wisley at the age of three.

He had met Clarissa's mother, Molly, an Australian heiress, while working in Singapore. He also pioneered an operation for stripping varicose veins and his patients included the Queen Mother, Vivien Leigh and the Sultana of Jahore. Her father, Arthur Dickson Wright, was a brilliant surgeon who was the first to extract a bullet from the spine without leaving the patient paralysed. ' Two Fat Ladies ' starred Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson. “My parents had great trouble deciding what to call me in the first place,” she explained about her abundance of first names, “but then they were so delighted they had finally found a name, they got pissed on the way to the church.” To decide which name should come first, “they blindfolded my mother and turned her loose in the library, where she pulled out a copy of Richardson's Clarissa”. Not content to confine themselves to the kitchen, the indomitable pair ventured out into the field, gathering mussels in Cornish drizzle – using their motorcycle helmets as pails – and perilously putting out to sea in a sliver of a boat to catch crabs.Ĭlarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmeralda Dickson Wright was born on June 24, 1947, the youngest of four children. Clarissa Dickson Wright would come up with such lines as “look at those charming looking fellows” when describing scallops, and advise businessmen to come home and cook “to relax after the ghastly things they do in the City”.

The Triumph motorbike and sidecar which sped the two fat ladies around the countryside might have appeared contrived (although Paterson was a keen biker), but their kitchen-sink comedy could never have been scripted. Clarissa Dickson Wright has died aged 66.

Jennifer paterson clarissa dickson wright