Clarissa Dickson Wright R.I.P.

The excellent chef and fascinating person Clarissa Dickson Wright has passed away far too young, at the age of

Now I suppose we'll never find out why she claimed Tony Blair's nickname at the Bar back in the 1970s was Miranda. Nor what dirt she had on Peter Mandleson, Jack Straw, Cherie Blair and others.

This and some other fascinating stories are alluded to in this Telegraph piece from 2007

'I wish I could relate Clarissa Dickson Wright's gossip about "Miranda", as she claims Tony Blair was known at the Bar when they moved in similar circles, back in the 1970s. The dirt she would like to dish on him is eye-popping. Ditto Derry Irvine, Peter Mandelson, Jack Straw and Cherie Blair. "In fact, I could tell you stories about all that Cabinet," she says.

"Go on then," I challenge the remaining half of the Two Fat Ladies cooking duo, "tell me something I don't know about Gordon Brown."

She rises to the occasion with a snippet that, if true, would end the Prime Minister's career. "I heard it from an Edinburgh taxi driver," she says, putting down her embroidery to savour this moment of wickedness, so at odds with the polite surroundings of London's Goring Hotel.

Sadly, these stories are far too outrageous to print either here or in her autobiography, Spilling the Beans - so lurid, indeed, that they probably say more about her wish to shock than anything else.'

I wonder if the BBC will remember these stories in her obituary, I think I know the answer to that.