Spilling the Beans

As a child, Clarissa Dickson Wright was surrounded by wealth and privilege. Her mother was an Australian heiress, her father a brilliant surgeon to the Royal family. But he was also a tyrannical and violent drunk who used to beat her and force her to eat rotten food. When her adored mother died suddenly, Clarissa fell into a mind-numbing decade of wild overindulgence that eventually cost her entire fortune. After a long, hard road to recovery, Clarissa finally faced her demons and turned to the one thing that had always brought her joy: cooking. Now at last she has found sobriety and peace, and her TV parternship with the beloved late Jennifer Paterson as theTwo Fat Ladiesbrought her fame and success. With stark honesty and brilliant wit, this is Clarissa's own story of a life lived to extremes.

Clarissa Dickson Wright is the author of five cookbooks, including The Game Cookbook, A Greener Life, and Sunday Roast.