Dawn French, early last year, she was ... (and freshly single) Dawn French has
added another ovelist. San die Jones ... A Tiny Bit Marvellous is the story of a ...
Dawn French
@TQ0McZ[RMZQcQ^M
The funny, fascinating (and freshly single) Dawn French has added another string to her bow — novelist. San die Jones went to meet her
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where we questioned what we’d become. Were we just friends? Did we want to be more than that? At the risk of losing that friendship? We threw a lot of questions into the arena and then we both went away and thought about the answers for a couple of weeks. It was a scary process, but it worked out fine because, in the end, we realised that we both wanted the same thing — to cherish the friendship we had.” Her lovely face, beautiful as ever at 53, breaks into a dimpled smile. She looks incredible, refreshed, buzzing with energy, and genuinely happy. “Lenny and I have the best relationship now,” she says. “We talk every day, meet for lunch whenever we can — even go on holiday together.” So how have they managed such an enviable state of harmony, when thousands of estranged couples can’t even bear to look at one another? She answers with thoughtful honesty: “I don’t want to live my life with any unkindness or lack of forgiveness,” she says. “I would hate for any unpleasantness to affect me or our daughter, Billie. And ultimately we had a friendship worth saving. All we’ve done is to free each other up, so that we can go back to where we started out.” Has 19-year-old Billie, the daughter Dawn and Lenny
adopted when she was a baby, coped with the split? “She’s fine with it all,” says Dawn. “She says the only difference is that, geographically, we’re no longer together. She knows that she still has two parents who love her very much, and has a loving home with each of us.” For the time being, Billie (who’s on a gap year) is staying with her dad in Berkshire, working with horses in the local stables, while Dawn remains in the family home in Cornwall. But she refutes the idea that the 40-room cliff-top mansion, built in the 1860s, must feel like an empty nest. “I don’t believe in ‘empty nest syndrome’ because I don’t feel empty,” she points out. “OK, so Lenny’s moved out and Billie’s not there right now, but Cornwall is my home and I’m surrounded by friends and family. I’m never on my own.” She’s also exceptionally industrious. Even in the midst of all the personal upheaval, Dawn managed to write her first novel (in pencil — she doesn’t like computers). A Tiny Bit Marvellous is the story of a modern-day dysfunctional family, all living in their own bubble, unaware of each other’s thoughts and feelings. Told in diary form — primarily by the mother, Mo, who’s approaching 50, and her 17-year-old daughter, Dora — it will strike a chord with any woman who feels life’s passing her by. “The catalyst for events in the book is when Mo catches sight of herself in a shop window,” reveals Dawn. “She’s wearing her best coat, one she spent a fortune on in the belief
that it made her look good, but as she stares at her reflection, she’s horrified that it actually looks like a dishcloth, and that she is the very grey lady inside it. We’ve all been there — it’s what you do about it that makes the difference.” What Mo does is set out to enjoy the attentions of a younger man, believing that doing so will make her more desirable and attractive. “We’ve all been there as well, haven’t we?” laughs Dawn. “I’ve often had my head turned by a leading man that I’m working with and fallen ever so slightly in love with him. It only lasts for three hours or until he says something stupid, but until that point, I’m almost drunk on the giddiness of it all.” Now that she’s single, I suspect there’ll be a few more of those moments. “Oh, I don’t know,” she giggles. ‘I’m very excited about being newly single — it’s a bit strange, but it’s also incredibly refreshing. I’ve already had a few nibbles. I don’t mean to say that anyone has actually bitten me but, suffice to say, it’s going all right!’ Doesn’t she miss the familiarity and security of having Lenny around? “That’s just it,” she says emphatically, “he’s still very much around. But I’ve never lived my life vicariously through a man.
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Photos: PA, Rex, Scope
C
hen I first interviewed Dawn French, early last year, she was planning her 25th wedding anniversary with her husband, comedian Lenny Henry. So it came as a huge shock to learn of the couple’s divorce, only months later. Although it turns out that the split wasn’t quite as sudden as it seemed. “It was almost a year in the making,” admits Dawn. “We’d just got to the point
I don’t need a man’s approval to feel I’m worth something. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way. It’s just that I’m confident in who I am, although I know from talking to friends that I’m probably unusual in feeling like that. I can see they worry about things that I wouldn’t even give the time of day to. I’m too busy mapping out what I need to squeeze into the 50 years I’ve got left to worry about what I look like and when I can next go shopping.” Dawn has always known what is of real importance in life, but she got a stark reminder of it when her friend, and comedy collaborator, Jennifer Saunders, was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year. “Jennifer’s doing really well,” says Dawn. “She’s had time to adapt to the situation and is dealing with it in the same gutsy
way she deals with everything.’” Their friendship, she says, is no different now. “We’ve always been there for each other, and that will always be the case. Our lives have been turned upside down this year, in such different ways, but we’re still the same.” And it will be the same Dawn and Jennifer that we know and love taking over the airwaves of Radio 2 for three two-hour shows over this festive period. “It’s something we’ve always wanted to do,” says Dawn excitedly. “I’ll be surprising her with songs I know she’ll love and hate and vice versa — music we forced each other to listen to for hours on end when we were living together as students more than 30 years ago. She’ll hate it, but it will take us back to the good times we shared, before we became grown-ups and had to deal with grown-up things. How simple life was back then.”
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Dawn and Lenny with daughter, Billie, in 2005
¬ÊA Tiny Bit Marvellous (Michael Joseph, £18.99) is available now. Dawn and Jennifer will be on Radio 2 on Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and 3rd January.
With comedy partner and friend, Jennifer Saunders
Woman’s Weekly 9
Dawn French
@TQ0McZ[RMZQcQ^M
The funny, fascinating (and freshly single) Dawn French has added another string to her bow — novelist. San die Jones went to meet her
5P[Z`ZQQPMYMZ_ M\\^[bMX"5YO[ZRUPQZ` UZcT[5MY$.a`5 P[Z`YQMZ`TM`UZ MZM^^[SMZ`cMe
where we questioned what we’d become. Were we just friends? Did we want to be more than that? At the risk of losing that friendship? We threw a lot of questions into the arena and then we both went away and thought about the answers for a couple of weeks. It was a scary process, but it worked out fine because, in the end, we realised that we both wanted the same thing — to cherish the friendship we had.” Her lovely face, beautiful as ever at 53, breaks into a dimpled smile. She looks incredible, refreshed, buzzing with energy, and genuinely happy. “Lenny and I have the best relationship now,” she says. “We talk every day, meet for lunch whenever we can — even go on holiday together.” So how have they managed such an enviable state of harmony, when thousands of estranged couples can’t even bear to look at one another? She answers with thoughtful honesty: “I don’t want to live my life with any unkindness or lack of forgiveness,” she says. “I would hate for any unpleasantness to affect me or our daughter, Billie. And ultimately we had a friendship worth saving. All we’ve done is to free each other up, so that we can go back to where we started out.” Has 19-year-old Billie, the daughter Dawn and Lenny
adopted when she was a baby, coped with the split? “She’s fine with it all,” says Dawn. “She says the only difference is that, geographically, we’re no longer together. She knows that she still has two parents who love her very much, and has a loving home with each of us.” For the time being, Billie (who’s on a gap year) is staying with her dad in Berkshire, working with horses in the local stables, while Dawn remains in the family home in Cornwall. But she refutes the idea that the 40-room cliff-top mansion, built in the 1860s, must feel like an empty nest. “I don’t believe in ‘empty nest syndrome’ because I don’t feel empty,” she points out. “OK, so Lenny’s moved out and Billie’s not there right now, but Cornwall is my home and I’m surrounded by friends and family. I’m never on my own.” She’s also exceptionally industrious. Even in the midst of all the personal upheaval, Dawn managed to write her first novel (in pencil — she doesn’t like computers). A Tiny Bit Marvellous is the story of a modern-day dysfunctional family, all living in their own bubble, unaware of each other’s thoughts and feelings. Told in diary form — primarily by the mother, Mo, who’s approaching 50, and her 17-year-old daughter, Dora — it will strike a chord with any woman who feels life’s passing her by. “The catalyst for events in the book is when Mo catches sight of herself in a shop window,” reveals Dawn. “She’s wearing her best coat, one she spent a fortune on in the belief
that it made her look good, but as she stares at her reflection, she’s horrified that it actually looks like a dishcloth, and that she is the very grey lady inside it. We’ve all been there — it’s what you do about it that makes the difference.” What Mo does is set out to enjoy the attentions of a younger man, believing that doing so will make her more desirable and attractive. “We’ve all been there as well, haven’t we?” laughs Dawn. “I’ve often had my head turned by a leading man that I’m working with and fallen ever so slightly in love with him. It only lasts for three hours or until he says something stupid, but until that point, I’m almost drunk on the giddiness of it all.” Now that she’s single, I suspect there’ll be a few more of those moments. “Oh, I don’t know,” she giggles. ‘I’m very excited about being newly single — it’s a bit strange, but it’s also incredibly refreshing. I’ve already had a few nibbles. I don’t mean to say that anyone has actually bitten me but, suffice to say, it’s going all right!’ Doesn’t she miss the familiarity and security of having Lenny around? “That’s just it,” she says emphatically, “he’s still very much around. But I’ve never lived my life vicariously through a man.
8QZZeMZP5TMbQ`TQNQ_` ^QXM`U[Z_TU\Z[ccQbQ _\XU`cQ^QR^UQZP_
Photos: PA, Rex, Scope
C
hen I first interviewed Dawn French, early last year, she was planning her 25th wedding anniversary with her husband, comedian Lenny Henry. So it came as a huge shock to learn of the couple’s divorce, only months later. Although it turns out that the split wasn’t quite as sudden as it seemed. “It was almost a year in the making,” admits Dawn. “We’d just got to the point
I don’t need a man’s approval to feel I’m worth something. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way. It’s just that I’m confident in who I am, although I know from talking to friends that I’m probably unusual in feeling like that. I can see they worry about things that I wouldn’t even give the time of day to. I’m too busy mapping out what I need to squeeze into the 50 years I’ve got left to worry about what I look like and when I can next go shopping.” Dawn has always known what is of real importance in life, but she got a stark reminder of it when her friend, and comedy collaborator, Jennifer Saunders, was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year. “Jennifer’s doing really well,” says Dawn. “She’s had time to adapt to the situation and is dealing with it in the same gutsy
way she deals with everything.’” Their friendship, she says, is no different now. “We’ve always been there for each other, and that will always be the case. Our lives have been turned upside down this year, in such different ways, but we’re still the same.” And it will be the same Dawn and Jennifer that we know and love taking over the airwaves of Radio 2 for three two-hour shows over this festive period. “It’s something we’ve always wanted to do,” says Dawn excitedly. “I’ll be surprising her with songs I know she’ll love and hate and vice versa — music we forced each other to listen to for hours on end when we were living together as students more than 30 years ago. She’ll hate it, but it will take us back to the good times we shared, before we became grown-ups and had to deal with grown-up things. How simple life was back then.”
6QZZURQ^MZP5cUXXMXcMe_ NQ`TQ^QR[^QMOT[`TQ^
Dawn and Lenny with daughter, Billie, in 2005
¬ÊA Tiny Bit Marvellous (Michael Joseph, £18.99) is available now. Dawn and Jennifer will be on Radio 2 on Boxing Day, New Year’s Day and 3rd January.
With comedy partner and friend, Jennifer Saunders
Woman’s Weekly 9
