Spilling some inconsistent beans.... (Spilling the Beans - Clarissa Dickson Wright)

Member Name: marymoose

Product:	Spilling the Beans - Clarissa Dickson Wright
Date:	26/08/09 (170 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An easy read, interesting

Disadvantages: Inconsistencies, and possible lies

---Intro---
Having decided to force myself back into reading while on the train (rather than staring aimlessly at sheep), I came across "Spilling the Beans" by Clarissa Dickson Wright on the charity book list at work (books for 25p), and I do like autobiographies. I bought the book knowing nothing except that Clarissa was one of the "Two Fat Ladies" (from the cookery programme in the late 1990s) - the one who hadn't died (hence the book!), and that she was from quite a privileged background, and an alcoholic.


---The Book---
Published in hardback in 2007, and paperback in 2008, my copy is 316 pages long including the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and excluding a fairly extensive but selective index (i.e. I couldn't find the thing I wanted to find in it). There's a photo of Clarissa on the front, looking well, er...like Clarissa. The book's rrp is £7.99, but I certainly wouldn't pay close to that for it - 25p was fine for me!

The book has 16 pages of coloured and glossy photos which is a nice touch - both of Clarissa and of her family. Not wishing to be spiteful, but she does go on and on about her youthful good looks, and I have to say that she wasn't the most attractive of people in her younger days, to say the least.


---The 'story'---
Clarissa Dickson Wright has had quite a life. Not least starting with her full name - Clarissa Theresa Philomena Aileen Mary Josephine Agnes Elsie Trilby Louise Esmerelda Dickson-Wright - quite a mouthful (no pun intended!)

Born in 1946 to an Australian heiress and an eminent surgeon (the Queen Mother and Saddam Hussein being among his patients, according to Clarissa), Clarissa was a bit of an afterthought as her siblings were much older than her. Her father was 50 when she was born.

Although there was money and lavish parties, it was not a happy childhood, since Clarissa's father was a violent alcoholic, regularly beating up both Clarissa and her mother.

Despite her father not supporting her wanting to go into law, she succeeded, and at the age of 21 was the youngest woman to be called to the Bar. However, Clarissa's life fell apart as she turned to drink, a problem which was exacerbated by her mother's untimely sudden death, and then the death of the love of her life, fellow alcoholic Clive.

Clarissa tells the story of how she went from successful lawyer, to drinking away her huge inheritance, working as a servant (cook), and then her road to recovery and how she got into cooking professionally.

The part which I was most interested in was her time doing Two Fat Ladies. Incidentally, while reading the book I watched several episodes which were being shown on a cooking channel, and I was interested to learn more. Jennifer Paterson was nearly 20 years older than Clarissa, but like her also an alcoholic - only difference being that while Clarissa had stopped drinking, Jennifer had not (apparently often driving the motorbike and side car after a bottle of vodka), although it was smoking which caused her death in 1999.

I felt that the story got a bit boring after this as Clarissa talked about her programme "Clarissa and the Countryman" which I wasn't particularly interested in, having never even heard of the programme!


---The writing style---
I suppose it's quite admirable that Clarissa has written the book herself (well, I assume she has), while most celebrities seem to get ghost writers. However, this isn't always a good thing, with sometimes exceptionally long sentences, and a severe lack of punctuation which would leave you struggling for breath if reading out loud! Certainly the book could have done with a bit of editing - I imagine that being the sort of person she is Clarissa felt that there was no need for this!

Clarissa is clearly a very energetic character and this comes through in her writing. However, she has a tendency to jump around a lot between events, and the order in which things happened is not always clear, to the extent that it doesn't always make sense. There are in fact quite a few inconsistencies in years and ages and the like. Just to use one example, just because it sticks in my mind being right at the end of the book. In the penultimate paragraph she says that she is 60 this year, but in the final paragraph says that the current year is 2007. Well, clearly it can't be both since she was born in 1946. I realise that she wrote the book in 2006, and then most likely just added another paragraph on when it was published, but to me it suggests a lack of care and attention to detail.

As I read the story certain things just didn't seem to add up, and having dug a bit on the Internet it seems that some things just aren't true at all. Clarissa talks about Tony Blair (or Miranda as they apparently called him) and being a student with him which just doesn't add up at all, when you consider that Blair is seven years younger than her. This sort of inaccuracy does make me wonder how much of the stuff in this book actually is true (in addition a lot of the stories are based around "he said that she did this and that"), or whether Clarissa is some sort of compulsive liar. She seems very proud of the fact that she has been told she has an IQ of 196 - to me shouting that about indicates attention seeking (and I realise that we should be sympathetic and look at the reasons why she feels this need to seek attention), not a sign of intellect (although I am not disputing that she is a very intelligent person)! I think that if she reads this review then she would probably argue that that is not what she was saying or doing - but that is just the way it sounded to me when I read it!


---My thoughts---
Clarissa is evidently a highly opinionated person, and her views might come across as offensive to some - she is not willing to see that there is another side to every story. To me her thoughts seem more misguided, and absurd at times. She suggests that we should all be eating pheasants because chickens come from the Third World and cause MRSA. While I do like pheasant, I have to say that it's not exactly practical as an everyday dish! Then there's her thoughts on fox hunting and coursing (pursuit of hares by dogs) which are extremely one sided - an argument with Clarissa would be futile as she wouldn't be willing to even listen to the other side of the story.

The bit which really got to me was when she started talking about people with eating disorders (based on the people she met while she was in the clinic for her alcoholism). The generalisations she makes are just plain inaccurate, stating that people with eating disorders don't like food (this will very much depend upon the individual and their relationship with food). And then there was the following quote I found quite shocking, so thought I'd share it with you:
"My first room-mate was a girl called Liz who came from a titled background and who had in her early teens thrown up with Princess Diana; apparently vomiting in company is not uncommon among bulimics." (p.180) Make of that what you will - I certainly don't know of any people with bulimia who do it as a group activity.

Interesting when she talks about people swapping one addiction for another, something which I know about well from my work with self-harm - often people will struggle with one addiction while another one is under control. That then got me thinking about Clarissa and her weight problems - is it possible that she has substituted alcohol for food? Of course as Clarissa says, her weight gain is nothing to do with the amount she eats, it's due to destroying her adrenal gland as a result of drinking too much tonic water in her G&T days. Even if she only ate lettuce leaves (she says) she would still not lose weight, apparently. But as I've already said, how much can we really believe?


---Final Thoughts---
I realise I have come across as pretty negative. But don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the book - it was certainly very interesting, and on the whole it was an easy read.

I'm sure that Clarissa does have many redeeming qualities, and I'm sure that she can be the life and soul of a party with her booming voice and brashness. However, I did find her quite arrogant and insulting in places, and I can imagine that she has upset a lot of people in her time. In addition to this as I've mentioned during this review, the possible lies - how much of this story can we actually believe?

That said though, if you like autobiographies and want to know more about Clarissa then give this book a go. I just wouldn't necessarily believe everything you read!

Summary: Take it with a pinch of salt!