Clarissa Dickson Wright: Difference between revisions

|first=Tim|last=Pardoe|publisher=timpardoe.co.uk|date=}}</ref> The youngest of four children, she was given 11 forenames.<ref name="Mail on Sunday"/> Her father, Arthur Dickson Wright, was a surgeon to the [[British Royal Family|Royal Family]], and her mother, Molly, was an [[Australia]]n heiress.<ref name="Telegraph 6 Sep"/><ref name="Mail on Sunday"/> Her cousin is comedian [[Alexander Armstrong (comedian)|Alexander Armstrong]].<ref name="You">{{cite journal|last=Paton|first=maureen|date=2009-07-19|title=In a Taxi with Ben Miller|journal=You - The Mail on Sunday|pages=49}}</ref> Born to a wealthy family, she had a [[Roman Catholic]] childhood and grew up in a nine-bedroom house in St. John's Wood that was staffed with several servants.<ref name="Mail on Sunday"/> Dickson Wright's father was an [[alcoholic]] who subjected his wife and children to verbal and physical abuse continuing into Clarissa Dickson Wright's adulthood, although this is a claim that her older sister Heather has always denied.<ref name="Mail on Sunday06">{{cite news|url=http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=390036&in_page_id=1879|title=Two angry ladies|first=Frances|last=Hardy|publisher=[[Daily Mail|Mail on Sunday]]|date=10 June 2006}}</ref> At the age of 11, Clarissa Dickson Wright was sent to [[Beechwood Sacred Heart School|Sacred Heart School]], a [[boarding school]] in [[Hove]], [[East Sussex]].<ref name="Mail on Sunday"/> After school she studied for [[Bar association|the Bar]] at [[Gray's Inn]], while pursuing a [[law]] degree at [[University College London]].<ref name="Mail on Sunday"/><ref name="BBC Food"/> At the age of 21, Dickson Wright passed her exams and became the country's youngest barrister.<ref name="Telegraph 6 Sep"/> After her mother died of a [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]] in 1975, she inherited [[£]]2.8 million. Her mother's death, combined a few years later with her father's, left her in a deep [[clinical depression|depression]], and she drank heavily for the following 12 years.<ref name="BBC Food">{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/chef_biogs/d.shtml#clarissa_dickson-wright|title=Presenter biographies|first=|last=|publisher=[[BBC]]|date=}}</ref>