‘I really thought my romantic life was over’
With a happy second marriage and a new novel, Fern Britton tells how she became the queen of reinvention
Write what you know – isn’t that what they say? Certainly, it’s a dictum Fern Britton has taken to heart. The bad-tempered heroine of her sixth novel, worked in TV production and gave birth in her mid-forties… “She’s not me,” says Fern, “but hers is a world I know, both professionally and personally.”
Fern is currently on her second, very happy marriage, to TV chef Phil Vickery. Indeed, the day we meet, in a rather louche bar and restaurant in Beaconsfield, is their 16th wedding anniversary. She had three children with her first husband, TV executive Clive Jones, her twins, Harry and Jack, as a result of IVF. “But I was in my mid-thirties by then and I’d begun to wonder whether I’d ever know the joy of motherhood.”
She didn’t have an easy time of it, afflicted by bouts of post-natal depression. Her fictional heroine Penny’s short temper, it transpires, is also triggered by depression. “She’s horrible to her poor husband. She beats off anybody who tries to help her. That was me after the twins were born. One in four women suffers from post-natal depression and yet many of them battle it without recognising the reason for their mood swings or seeking professional help.
“Part of it, I think, is that the women imagine they’ll turn into zombies if they take pills. But they won’t. The pills prescribed aren’t tranquillisers. Of course, they aren’t going to suit everybody, which is why I had Penny having a bit of acupuncture, a bit of counselling. It’s whatever works for you. But you have to acknowledge the problem in the first place.” When Britton’s daughter Grace was just five months old, the marriage imploded. She still wishes she and Clive could have made it work: “That would have been better for the kids. You want it to last for the rest of your lives.” It must have been tough to be left with three small children. How did she feel? “In a word,” she says, “liberated. I felt a sense of peace. That said, work is a salvation when you’re in a bit of a mess.” Fern had been on her own for a year when Phil Vickery came into her life. He was the resident chef on which she was then presenting with Phillip Schofield. “The boys were four; Grace hadn’t even started toddling. I remember thinking at the time that nobody was going to take on a forty-something woman with three kids. “Then, one day at work, be exempt from all that,” Brower goes on. “And since Clinton’s friends can’t imagine him having an office in the East Wing, where the First Lady has traditionally worked, his office will likely be in the Eisenhower Executive Building, where vice presidents have an office, or even in the West Wing.” An ability to smooth over his other half ’s abrasive edges is one of Bill’s First Lady-like talents, but such is his charisma that he will need to be given a substantial role of his own in order to prevent him from overshadowing his “co-president”. Although Hillary has said that she would put her husband “in charge of revitalising the economy”, Maney thinks it more likely that he will go to the United Nations. “He once told Madeleine Albright that the UN position was second only to the presidency as the office he most coveted,” says the author. “And that way, he’d give Hillary breathing space but still be a major player.” In this single respect Clinton would not be breaking new ground: his wife famously antagonised White House staff and voters at the start of her husband’s administration by becoming the first First Lady to set up shop in the West Wing. But Bill’s enduring position as the most popular US politician of all time is likely to allow him a leeway former First Spouses could only dream of. Back in the day, Hillary’s involvement in a variety of domestic policy issues (rather than the charitable causes her predecessors were traditionally limited to) was rued by many, but it seems certain that voters would want as much someone said: ‘Phil Vickery fancies you.’ And I went: ‘Remind me – which one is he?’ Eventually, I kidnapped him, put him and his dirty washing – he was single at the time – in my car and drove him home. The next day, he baked me his irresistible gooseberry crumble.”
Fern was smitten. “I doubted he’d want to commit, though. But he said: ‘Well, it’s a recipe, isn’t it? Just add water: instant family. If I want you, and I do, I get the rest.’ Bless him.
“He is my life’s great love, a really amazing husband, partner, friend. Yes, we have humdingers, but then we’re normal. Anyway, that’s good for the children to see. This is a real relationship. You hear people say: ‘Thirty years and not a cross word.’ Sorry, I simply don’t believe that. But, if it is true, how boring.”
The twins are now 22. Harry, an abstract painter, is putting together his showcase exhibition having completed his fine art degree at Oxford. Jack is studying music at Glasgow and working with his fledgling band, Sweet Creeps. Grace, 19, is reading geography at university. Winnie, 14, her only child by Phil, is currently studying for her GCSEs.
Fern was 44 when Winnie was born. “Phil and I like to say we went latenight shopping and got in just before the doors closed.” Bill as they could get under a Hillary Clinton presidency. “No president has had a more charismatic spouse than Bill in their armoury of surrogates,” explains media mogul Tina Brown. “The Big Dog will be envoyed into trouble spots as her advance charm offensive.” No doubt to great effect. And Patrick Maney, author of seconds this: “Unquestionably, Bill will have a major influence, whether he exerts it in public or behind the scenes. And why not? A president needs all the help he (or she) can get. George W Bush might have been a better president if his father hadn’t been so reticent to offer advice.” With Donald Trump potentially gone, Clinton will be the biggest entertainer in town: a major player and, perhaps, a slight liability? After all, nobody would want the first Mr First Lady in US history – a man who is the caveat in every generalisation and exception to every rule – to turn into Eleanor Roosevelt. “And the fact that he will for sure cause a little trouble himself,” chuckles Tina Brown, “will only make it more interesting.”
In the novel, Fern is keen to explore Penny’s childhood. “I wanted to know more about loving a father and then losing him.” Fern didn’t lose her father. Actor Tony Britton is 92 and still going strong. So is her mother, Ruth. But the couple parted when Fern was a baby and her elder sister, Cherry, was eight.
Fern saw her father, but infrequently. “It was all a bit bewildering. This glamorous, handsome figure would turn up every so often smelling of aftershave – it must have driven my mother potty – and it was always a treat to see him. But it was emotionally charged, too.”
She also has a half-brother, Jasper, now a noted Shakespearean actor, who is Tony’s son with his second wife. But throughout her childhood, no one told Fern of Jasper’s existence. “To this day, I can’t explain why. It’s my parents’ business, not mine, but they’ve never felt able to tell me their reasons.”
At 18, tipped off by sister Cherry, Fern turned up at her father’s house. Jasper, by then 14, must have known his younger half-sister was coming. “He opened the front door and his first words to me were: ‘I’ve had to scrub myself with Vim to meet you.’ It made both of us laugh and we’ve got on from that day to this. In fact, I recently spent a week with him in New York, the longest time we’ve ever been together.”
You’ve got to hand it to her: Fern is the mistress of her own reinvention. There were six years on
another 10 on stint on in 2012. She’s currently hosting BBC One’s antiques quiz, And, for the second year running, she’ll stand in for Clare Balding (away covering the Olympics) on her Sundaymorning Radio 2 slot.
It’s perhaps less than kind to point it out but, next year, Fern will turn 60. “Didn’t mind 30, 40, 50… but I must admit I’ve taken a little time to process 60. It’s a bit like contemplating some really unpleasant dentistry and yet knowing I’ll be fine the next day.”
She certainly doesn’t look her age. “Well, I’m very healthy,” she says. She’s just returned from her annual bike ride in support of Lord Winston’s Genesis Trust, researching what triggers miscarriage. This time, it was six days cycling in the Highlands, and she helped raise just over £50,000. “I’m really fit as a result.” She fixes me with her most winning smile: “Would you like to feel my thighs?”
She’s full of good humour today. So what’s happened to her “black dog of depression”, as she calls it – where is it at the moment? “In kennels. I used to hear the occasional whimper in the night, as it were, but not for a long time. Ever since the menopause, I seem to have calmed down. I feel much happier, much more peaceful.
“I could never have said this in the past,” she says, “but now I can see a future.” a