For Freud fans

Emma Freud: My father, Clement Freud, remembered

It's a year since Clement Freud intellectual maverick, broadcaster, writer, politican and chef died. just before his 85th birthday. His daughter Emma Freud recalls the emotional turmoil leading up to his funeral and her joy at discovering how much he was loved


* The Guardian, Saturday 24 April 2010

Is it possible to have a good death? If it is, my father's death was good. He was 84, and hated being old. He was many stone overweight, his legs hurt constantly, he was slow and lame, and things were going on in the waterworks area, with which I refused to engage. For the last 10 years of his life, he was actively waiting for his death. He'd spent 70 years as a chef, soldier, journalist, showman, MP, knight, author and raconteur he'd had a big, bold, adventurous life and he was basically over it. Every birthday, rather than receive a present, he'd ask me to come to his flat and take something of his away.

So when he was told by a doctor in February 2009 that he needed a triple heart bypass, he took the news calmly. As he'd planned a birthday party for himself on 24 April, he asked for the procedure to be delayed until after he'd turned 85. The party invitation said: "7.30 for 8pm though it may be wise to keep an eye on the obituary columns."

He had made some decisions about how he wanted his death to be. He wasn't going to leave any money to his children, as he thought we all had enough. He was keen that someone made sure Mum had enough food she liked in the fridge. And he didn't want Nicholas Parsons, who he had been torturing on Radio 4's Just a Minute for 41 years, coming to his funeral.

In the week he died, he travelled 400 miles around the UK, wrote three articles, and did his last Just a Minute. On Wednesday 15 April, he was at home with my mother writing an article for the Racing Post about the race meeting in Exeter he'd attended the previous day. He was mid-sentence in the first paragraph, when he had a massive heart attack. My mother came in to find him still in his chair, with his head slumped to one side. He had just ended. The last words he typed were "and in God's good time

Thank you Cherry for posting I really miss his Saturday column.

Always pick up his on course book when i fancy a giggle, a legend, imo.

a great bloke i loved reading his articles and following his selections

A life genuinely lived to the full, if i manage a 10th of what he did i'll have had a good life.

legend sadly missed.

hiis racing book made me laugh so much,beg steal buy a copy . A truely funny man who had a great wit.Loved the idea that he backed himself at 33/1 to be liberal candidate,then told all the voters to back him,vote and collect

an incredible man. MP, chef, raconteur, comic genius etc.. What happened to his ilk?

Thanks for the post cherry.

A fitting tribute to a unique witty man. Truly missed!

Very witty man..... loved his columns and his book of RP articles.

jewish,irish,polish.A great example of why we should not prejudge immigrants

french force 24 Apr 21:33


He always said Monika Lewinsky misheard Bill Clinton,All he said was Sack My Cook. Legend!

lol :)

Had a pint with him once, when he was a mp, you knew you was with someone special. great man, great life.

.

I always remember seeing him in the legendary buffet car on the train between Brighton and Victoria, in the queue, waiting for his bacon sandwich......

He was a very small man but so large in so many ways.

B-)

ttt

to the top

a worthy tribute and agree that he could be very humourous but also a tendency for sarcasm and a sense of always knowing best, like most of us good points and bad, not a saint.

thanks for posting, cherry

i wonder whether the family decided to invite Nicholas Parsons or whether he gatecrashed the gig?!

remember that noise. my daughter made it when i told her about her mum. the memory of that sound still moves me to tears. as this article did.

P...L...E...A....S...E.................................................!