TV cook Clarissa Dickson Wright, who has died age 66, had a local connection.
In her book Clarissa’s England: A gamely gallop through the English counties, she records her discovery that one of her ancestors was Sir Edmund Wright, once Lord Mayor of London and a member of the Merchant Adventurers’ Company and the man who built Swakeleys House.
“I discovered that he was one of the band of merchant adventurers based in Richmond, ... and that he moved south to look after his fortune,” she wrote.
“You can just see it, can’t you, a sort of thick-set Yorkshire man deciding: ‘ ‘Ere, those buggers in London aren’t looking after my money properly, I’ll go and sort it.’
“It was he who built Swakeleys House in Ickenham ...”
Ms Dixon Wright, who was one half of the hugely popular Two Fat Ladies cookery programme team, with Jennifer Paterson, died in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, on Saturday
A statement from her agency said: “Loved dearly by her friends and many fans all over the world, Clarissa was utterly non-PC and fought for what she believed in, always, with no thought to her own personal cost.
“Her fun and laughter, extraordinary learning and intelligence, will be missed always, by so many of us.”
Swakeleys House, a Grade I listed, 17th-century mansion, is a popular venue for summer concerts and is often used as a film set.
Episodes of the American drama 24 were being shot there last week.
