I regret over-sharing about my stepmother in memoir, says Slater
Food writer confesses to mixed feelings over claims he made in book that was turned into BBC drama
NIGEL SLATER has confided that he regrets “over-sharing” in his bestselling memoir, in which he recalls the difficult relationship he had with a stepmother who he portrays as a gold-digger.
In Toast, which was later made into a drama by the BBC, the food writer and broadcaster wrote of his childhood and culinary memories. His mother, Kathleen, died when he was nine, and his father, Tony, remarried a woman named Dorothy Perrens.
The young Slater resented her and described her in the 2003 book as a cold-hearted social climber intent on marrying a man with a healthy bank balance – an account rejected by her daughters.
The book is currently being adapted for the stage and the 2010 television drama, with Helena Bonham Carter as Perrens, drew six million viewers.
But in an interview to promote his latest BBC series, Slater, 61, said he now has mixed feelings about the memoir which also recounts his adolescent sexual awakening. “I slightly regret oversharing,” he told Radio Times. “I’m probably a bit more guarded than I used to be. You can talk about other people’s lives a bit too much, and I think maybe I did that.” He went on: “Knowing what I know now, at this ripe old age, I would have behaved very differently with my stepmother.
“I would have realised she was in a very difficult position, and my father was in a very difficult position, too.
“But, you know, I had been a very protected little middle-class boy and suddenly I was thrown into this turmoil, and into a world that has changed enormously for me, and
I just was out of my comfort zone and not old and wise enough to realise it was difficult for other people as well. Certainly, I would handle that whole situation differently now. I hope I would be a lot more compassionate.”
Both Slater’s father and Perrens had died by the time the book was published, and they were given pseudonyms: Perrens was renamed
‘I was just out of my comfort zone and not old and wise enough to realise it was difficult for other people as well’
Joan Potter. But when the BBC adaptation was broadcast, Perrens’s daughters, Ann and June, said they were horrified by the portrayal of their mother.
Ann said: “My mum thought the relationship she had with Nigel was fine. It was only when Toast was published we found out for the first time how he really felt about her. If she had been alive to see the book and the film, it would have killed her.”
She added: “I really cannot believe that I pay my licence fee only to have them [the BBC] portray my dear mother as a tart. I’ve written to them to complain but they’ve not replied yet.”
Slater’s latest TV project, Nigel Slater’s Middle East, is a new departure as he travels around Iran, Turkey and Lebanon. While he enjoyed the food, Slater missed having a drink. “Of course there is alcohol in those countries, but we were never offered it and we never attempted to find it. Even though I was almost on my knees, absolutely gasping for a drink at the end of the day.”