“Real writers write all the time. It’s like a disease.” In conversation with Prue Leith

Beaming through a pair of bright red spectacles and donning an eclectic floral jacket, there was no mistaking Dame Prue Leith as she walked up to the front of St Mark’s Church. Unlike the dreary grey of a typical St Andrews day, The Great British Bake Off judge’s customary colourful entrance brought a wave of smiles to the room.  

“There’s no doubt that colours lift your mood,” Leith said “Just wear a yellow coat on a dull winter day and you’ll see!” 

This nugget of wisdom was just one of many insights Leith shared earlier this month, when she travelled up North to speak at a Topping & Company event about her newly published novel Life’s too Short to Stuff a Mushroom. Myself and 300 other baking fanatics crammed into the small church for an hour of laughs, culinary tips and quintessential anecdotes from the beloved Bake Off judge. 

Although internationally known for the hit baking show, some may be surprised to learn that Leith didn’t always know what she wanted to do with her life. After leaving high school in Johannesburg, South Africa, Leith pursued a range of career paths, as she bounced between drama school, art school, architecture, and a BA in Philosophy and French. Though she enjoyed her degree, she admitted her course wasn’t the most academically taxing. “My Dad said I studied the Three B’s: the Beach, Boys, and Booze,” she reminisced. 

After nothing stuck, Leith moved to Paris to take a course in French Civilisation at the Sorbonne, and it was there that she realised what she wanted. She recalled, “While in France I discovered food, and at last realised that what I wanted to be was a cook.”

From falling in love with food in Paris, Leith decided to go to the Cordon Bleu cookery school in London to complete the advanced three-month course. Three months later, after graduating from the cookery school, Leith knew what she wanted to do. In her talk, she spoke of catering for private dinner parties from her London bedsit during her early cooking career, and recalled putting live lobsters and lettuces in the bath and making smoked salmon sandwiches on the dressing table. 

As her prospects in the food industry began to take off, Leith discovered another passion whilst living in France. “When I was in Paris, I wrote a column ‘Letter from Paris’ for the Johannesburg Tatler. My mother was friends with the editor and showed her one of my letters. The editor then suggested I write the column,” said Leith. She described the column in her talk as “reckless” and “full of the possibility of being in a great city when you’re young.” On reflection, she “felt really proud of it. I even got paid! And it started me on a long life of journalism.” 

Whilst working as one of the first female restaurant owners in London, Leith received a commission by well-known journalist Quentin Crewe to write recipes for the wine merchants Berry Brothers newsletter. She remembered, “he wrote the wine chat and I wrote the food chat and recipes.” 

When it comes to drafting and writing an article, Leith dictates her own terms. She allows her editors to cut and rearrange as they like, as is their right, but “if they want to add anything, they must ask me [first].” Speaking on her career in journalism, Leith said, “I cannot bear other people writing for me. I will never be ghosted or have a speech written for me.” Leith’s favourite publication to write for is The Spectator, reasoning, “It’s vanity, because my friends read it!” Yet, she will “write for anyone” and periodically appears in The Times, The Telegraph, and The Daily Mail. She also enjoys writing her 500-word column for The Oldie magazine. She said, “I can write about anything I like,” from a cat dying to “I’m beginning to see the point of being a dictator,” as revealed during her book talk. 

During her early career in the catering industry, whilst running a restaurant and cookery school, Leith said “I just did journalism or cookbooks, which you can do in bits and pieces of time, picking an hour here or there.” Yet, after writing several best-selling cookery books, Leith turned her hand to writing fiction. Her first novel Leaving Patrick was published in 1999. “I’d always wanted to write fiction, but you need sustained periods of time to live in the world you are creating,” she said.

It wasn’t until “the desire to write that first novel, which had been buzzing about my head for years, became too strong, I decided to sell the business [in 1993] so that I could stay at home and write. Which I did.” Leith adds that there are 140 books published daily in England, so “the chances of best-seller-dom are pretty well nil!” Luckily, she said, “My novels have always sold well enough for the publishers to want the next one, so I can’t complain.”

When asked about writer’s block, Leith said “I’ve never had it. I often delay the process of writing because I just don’t feel like getting stuck in, but once I start, I think about it all the time and want to get back to it.” She compares it to “jumping into water”, “you don’t want to [do it], but you do!”

It is possible, with the rise in social and digital media, that enthusiasm for fiction could be fading. However, Leith believes that novels still play a key role in our lives. As she said: “The encouraging thing is that more books are sold today than before Covid, It’s not a declining business” and “for some of us they are vital.” However, the rise in social media has made its mark on the literary industry, as she said, “Rather depressingly, the first question a publisher will ask a prospective new writer is ‘How many followers do you have?’” Unfortunately, “if you can bring a ready-made cohort of buyers for your book, they are more interested in that than if you write a great sentence!” In this regard, Leith advises aspiring writers to start a regular online blog and increase activity on social media. “Keep writing. The more you write, and read, the better you’ll be at it.”

In conversation about her newest publication, Life’s too Short to Stuff a Mushroom, Leith adds “I pinched the title from Shirley Conran, author of Superwoman, whose message to women was basically to stop trying to be a Domestic Goddess. Not being perfect is fine.” As for the contents of the book, Leith shares her tricks, techniques, and hacks, with QR codes on each page to demonstrate the tips online. She said, “I’m conscious that few people learn to cook at school, and parents, if they can cook, haven’t the time to teach their kids.” The book is full of simple and easy recipes suitable for everyone, notably a frozen onion hack and how to avoid a trip to A&E with “avocado hand,” which Leith considers perfect for busy students. Most importantly, after reading the book, it’s likely you’ll never, ever want to stuff another mushroom again. 

I couldn’t end this interview without asking what Leith was most looking forward to doing in St Andrews whilst here for her book talk. She recalled having visited in the past when her brother was a student at the University. “I love Scotland,” she said. “Both my parents' families come from Scotland, I’m married to a Scot, we got married in Edinburgh and had our honeymoon on the Royal Scotsman train.”

Leith’s wisdom is enlightening, especially for aspiring writers like me, who are often told that journalism is a dying art form. In her truly inspirational style, she said, “I think real writers write all the time. It’s like a disease, an itch, you don’t feel quite right if you aren’t writing.”

Photo by Prue Leith