THE celebrated television cook Clarissa Dickson Wright was remembered at her funeral as a brilliant and contradictory woman.
The 66-year-old, who found fame as one of the Two Fat Ladies, died in Edinburgh on March 15.
And her love of food was highlighted at the funeral with an unusual wreath including red chillies and artichokes on top of her coffin.
Her sometimes turbulent life, which included a battle with alcohol, was remembered in a eulogy delivered at the city's St Mary's Metropolitan Cathedral by the Very Rev Monsignor Michael Regan.
"Through her education and upbringing she proved herself to be a brilliant woman and her career seemed destined for greatness, but she had the self-destruct mechanism of so many gifted people and her downward spiral is well known," he said.
"But from that downward spiral, where she found herself homeless and penniless, she learned a sympathy with others that stayed with her and through her association with Alcoholics Anonymous she found and gave strength to others."
She was a "mass of contradictions", he said.
A piper played outside the city centre church as her coffin was carried at the front of family and friends.
As a food writer and broadcaster Dickson Wright was known for her frank manner and strong opinions.
Born in London, she trained as a barrister and was the youngest woman ever to be called to the Bar.
Alcohol addiction put an end to her legal career but in the mid-1990s she was spotted by a TV producer while working in an Edinburgh cookery shop.
Teamed with the late Jennifer Paterson, the duo travelled around in a motorbike and sidecar, creating feasts as well as a hit BBC 2 series. She appeared in other shows, including Clarissa And The Countryman and Clarissa And The King's Cookbook, and served as rector of Aberdeen University.
Producer Patricia Llewellyn said following Dickson Wright's death: "She was a force of nature and a true character, someone who knew how to tell a great story and had a fabulous sense of humour."
Her agents, Heather Holden-Brown and Elly James, said: "Her fun and laughter, extraordinary learning and intelligence, will be missed always."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article