# Clarissa Dickson Wright
**Clarissa Dickson Wright** (born 1947, died 15 March 2014) was an English television cook, food writer and former barrister who became famous as one half of the [BBC Two](https://www.edgepedia.org/bbc-two) cooking series *Two Fat Ladies* alongside [Jennifer Paterson](https://www.edgepedia.org/jennifer-paterson).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | London, 1947; obituaries give 1947, the Television Academy database gives 1947[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0225735/bio/) • [3](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/clarissa-dickson-wright) |
| Full name | Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmerelda Dickson Wright[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0225735/bio/) |
| Legal career | Youngest woman called to the Bar, at age 21 in 1968; later disbarred after alcoholism ended her practice[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html) |
| Signature show | *Two Fat Ladies*, BBC Two, four series 1996–99, traveling Britain on a Triumph motorcycle with sidecar[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html) |
| Other television | *Clarissa and the Countryman* (2000–03) with Sir John Scott; *Clarissa and the King's Cookbook* (BBC Four, 2008)[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0225735/) |
| Public office | First female rector of the University of Aberdeen, 1999–2005[5](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/17/clarissa-dickson-wright) |
| Died | 15 March 2014, Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary, aged 66[5](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/17/clarissa-dickson-wright) |
## Early life and legal career
Dickson Wright was born in London, the youngest of four children in a Roman Catholic family with servants. Her father, Arthur, was a surgeon to the Royal Family, and her mother, Molly, was an Australian heiress; the comedian [Alexander Armstrong](https://www.edgepedia.org/alexander-armstrong) was a cousin[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html). By her own account her childhood was unhappy: her father was autocratic and violent, and often drunk, and her mother, whom she adored, died of a heart attack in 1975[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html) • [5](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/17/clarissa-dickson-wright).
She studied law at [University College London](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-college-london) and trained for the Bar at [Gray's Inn](https://www.edgepedia.org/grays-inn). In 1968 she became the country's youngest barrister, at 21[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html). Her alcoholism then ended the career: she drank away her £2,800,000 inheritance over twelve years, was asked to leave her chambers after frequent absences, and was later disbarred for practicing without chambers[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html).
**Recovery and cooking.** After being charged with drink-driving she attended [Alcoholics Anonymous](https://www.edgepedia.org/alcoholics-anonymous) and spent ten weeks at the Promis rehabilitation clinic in Kent[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html). In 1987 she began running the Books for Cooks shop and café in Portobello Road, London; when the owner sold it seven years later she managed the Cooks Bookshop in Edinburgh[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html). She had also run a catering business, worked on a yacht in the Caribbean, served 60 meals a day at her London luncheon club, and become one of only two women in England to become a guild butcher[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0225735/).
## Two Fat Ladies
She had met Jennifer Paterson, The Spectator's boardroom cook and food writer, at a lunch party in Tuscany in 1992. In 1994 the television producer Patricia Llewellyn paired them for the pilot of *Two Fat Ladies*; the BBC then commissioned a series[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html). Over four series (1996–99) the pair traveled Britain, Paterson on a Triumph Thunderbird motorcycle with Dickson Wright in the double-width sidecar, visiting locations from an Army garrison to an all-girls' school and cooking rich, strong-flavored meals that paid little regard to healthy-eating rules. They advocated fresh ingredients from farms and roadside markets in preference to supermarkets[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html).
The program became a big international hit for the BBC, and its success even spread to the United States, where *Saturday Night Live* parodied it[6](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/two-fat-ladies-star-clarissa-dickson-wright-dies-at-66/) • [1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html). The series ended when Paterson died of cancer in 1999, aged 71; Dickson Wright refused to make another series after her co-star's death[6](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/two-fat-ladies-star-clarissa-dickson-wright-dies-at-66/) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0225735/).
## Later television, books and causes
After Paterson's death she teamed up with her Berwickshire hill farmer friend Johnny Scott for *Clarissa and the Countryman* (2000–03) and hosted several *One Man and His Dog* specials (2000–02)[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html). She presented *Balderdash & Piffle* (2006) with Adam Hart-Davis, Victoria Coren, and Mark Ravenhill, and was sole host of *Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner* in 2012[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html). In 2008 she presented *Clarissa and the King's Cookbook* on [BBC Four](https://www.edgepedia.org/bbc-four), making recipes from a cookbook dating to the reign of Richard II[4](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0225735/).
Her business ventures fared less well. She filed for bankruptcy in 2003, owing more than £90,000 and blaming two failed businesses and the BBC, which she claimed had dithered over committing to a further series of *Clarissa and the Countryman*[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html). The Guardian obituary dates the bankruptcy to 2004, when her Edinburgh shop venture ended[5](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/17/clarissa-dickson-wright).
**Writing.** She wrote four *Two Fat Ladies* cookbooks with Paterson, and her own titles including *The Haggis: A History* (1996), *A Sunday Roast* (2002), *The Game Cookbook* (2004), *A Greener Life* (2005), the autobiography *Spilling the Beans* (2007), *Potty! Clarissa's One Pot Cookbook* (2010), *Clarissa's England* (2012), and the prizewinning *A History of English Food* (2011)[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html) • [5](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/17/clarissa-dickson-wright). Her autobiography was a Sunday Times number one bestseller[7](https://www.penguin.com.au/authors/clarissa-dickson-wright).
She was a fervent campaigner for the Countryside Alliance and a defender of fox hunting and other rural pursuits, saying she was prepared to go to prison for the right to hunt[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/29/question-time-clarissa-dickson-wright). In 2009 she and the racehorse trainer Sir Mark Prescott received an absolute discharge after pleading guilty to attending two hare coursing events in [North Yorkshire](https://www.edgepedia.org/north-yorkshire) in 2007, having believed the muzzled-dog events were legal[1](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html) • [9](https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home-news/clarissa-dicksonwright-escapes-punishment-for-hunting-offences-1780275.html).
## Death and legacy
Dickson Wright died on 15 March 2014 at Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary, aged 66, of an illness her agents described only as unspecified; IMDb records pneumonia as the cause[5](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/17/clarissa-dickson-wright) • [6](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/two-fat-ladies-star-clarissa-dickson-wright-dies-at-66/) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0225735/bio/). Her agent's statement noted that she had often said she had "had a fantastic life and I've done everything I could have wanted to do and more"[10](https://www.itv.com/news/story/2014-03-17/television-cook-clarissa-dickson-wright-dies-aged-66). Llewellyn remembered her as "a marvelous cook and hugely knowledgeable about food and food history" and "a force of nature"[6](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/two-fat-ladies-star-clarissa-dickson-wright-dies-at-66/).
## References
1. [Clarissa Dickson Wright: Broadcaster, cook and former barrister, The Independent (2014)](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/clarissa-dickson-wright-broadcaster-cook-and-former-barrister-who-found-worldwide-fame-as-one-of-television-s-two-fat-ladies-9198120.html)
2. [Clarissa Dickson Wright – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0225735/bio/)
3. [Clarissa Dickson Wright, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/clarissa-dickson-wright)
4. [Clarissa Dickson Wright, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0225735/)
5. [Clarissa Dickson Wright obituary, The Guardian (2014)](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/17/clarissa-dickson-wright)
6. ["Two Fat Ladies" star Clarissa Dickson Wright dies at 66, CBS News/AP (2014)](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/two-fat-ladies-star-clarissa-dickson-wright-dies-at-66/)
7. [Clarissa Dickson Wright, Penguin Books Australia](https://www.penguin.com.au/authors/clarissa-dickson-wright)
8. [Question time: Clarissa Dickson Wright, The Guardian (2009)](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/29/question-time-clarissa-dickson-wright)
9. [Clarissa Dickson-Wright escapes punishment for hunting offences, The Independent (2009)](https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/home-news/clarissa-dicksonwright-escapes-punishment-for-hunting-offences-1780275.html)
10. [Television cook Clarissa Dickson Wright dies aged 66, ITV News (2014)](https://www.itv.com/news/story/2014-03-17/television-cook-clarissa-dickson-wright-dies-aged-66)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Food, customs, and everyday culture › Food, cooking and hospitality › Restaurants, chefs, and culinary practice › Chefs, culinary professions, and hospitality › Television and celebrity chefs › British and Irish television chefs*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license