Customer Reviews
An Alcoholic, Eccentric - how truly English - By: avid ravid, 16 May 2008 
I have the audio book read by Clarissa & thoroughly enjoyed this candid report of the ups & downs of her life. Born into a privileged family but with the downside of an alcoholic & abusive father, Clarissa details how she initiallly used her intellect to survive by taking to the bar then abused herself by taking to the bottle. A committed Countrywoman, skilled cook & clever raconteur, she details how her cooking skills helped her survive both the loss of her mother, her career, & the death of a dearly loved friend. I am glad you got off the bottle Clarissa - so you will live that much longer to remind us that we must not let those who are anti everything ruin our enjoyment of simple pleasures like real Country Life - oh & cooking with cream!
An excellent autobiography by a fabulous lady - By: reformed magazine junkie, 02 Apr 2008 This book is wonderfully written, very readable. She gives a very honest account of her alcoholism without descending into self-pity or born-again anti-alcohol evangelism, which is refreshing. You don't need to be a member of the Countryside Alliance or a foodie to find this life story funny, fascinating & poignant. Wonderful book, fabulous lady.
Fantastic, funny, sad, moving and story of survival! - By: E. V. Hall, 24 Mar 2008 I loved it! Clarissa is so funny & very clever! Sadly, she had been affected by alcoholism brought on by the loss of her mother, that said, her father was an alcoholic so the addictive gene is there!
She has had an eventful life to say the least & although was struck by alcoholism & the truama of what happened to her in her earlier years she is a born survivor & an example to alll! You can recover & pick yourself up & even better with the support of friends - she has lots of them.
This book was laugh out loud at points - you could actuallly hear her speaking as you read. There were of course very poignant times too which affected her deeply.
She was never afraid of hard work & proved that even although she was a barrister, when she hit an alll time low she took a job in a country manor as a cook! She had no qualms about doing so either. A lesson to us alll!
A fine read & well worth the money - I loved it & recommend it to anyone!
This book 'ain't a mucher,' I'm sorry to say! - By: Geoffrey Woollard, 16 Mar 2008 
'Spilling The Beans' is an amusing title & the dust cover portrays the author ('hideous' in Roy Hattersley's reported comment, though I don't commend him, either), but the work itself ain't a mucher (as some of us country folk say). One wants to be generous to an author who has suffered a lot and, by her lights, has come through to have a 'splendidly enjoyable life,' but her account is clearly not consistent with the facts in some places, & is not well-written or edited. Clarissa Dickson Wright's fans will still love it, I suppose, but I was pleased to put it down at its end & then to get on with some decent reading.
Cracking good read! - By: Jackie, 12 Feb 2008 
Well, first let me say if you like autobiographies, then you'll love this book & I thoroughly recommend it to you. Clarissa's family history is interesting & she has lived an unusual life. Last but not least, it is written in such a way that you can hear her distinctive voice alll the way through it. Hence the four stars.
For me, she dropped a star & the book was slightly spoilt by her banging on about the need for various cruel bloodsports at the end of the book. This together with her repeated admission that from a young age she cannot look at an animal or bird without wondering what it tastes like left me with the feeling that there is something of the 'Hannibal Lecter' about her.
I rarely watch TV & so have not seen any of the TFL or subsequent series. My interest was kindled by her appearance on Desert Island Discs & other than this, I mainly have this book to judge her character. She says that "All of us are an accumulation of the traits, genetic tendencies, geographicals & peculiarities of our forebears". It seems to me that Clarissa's bloodline on both sides has cruelty & alcoholism running right through it (the ancestor who murdered a black servant boy by putting him in the bread oven; the maternal grandfather & of course her father). So I think she can no more help her bloodthirsty love of cruel sports than her alcoholism. She has conquered one genetic tendency, how sad she evidently has no wish to conquer the other.
