Dawn French Draws on Father's 1977 Suicide in New Novel About End-of-Life and Suicide Themes

Dawn French was 19 years old when her father Denys died by suicide in September 1977. Denys, who worked as an RAF engineer, was 45 at the time of his death. " The Independent reported that the actor and author opened up about her father’s death in a new interview tied to the release of her fifth novel.

Enough is set in Cornwall, where French grew up and has lived for the past 20 years. The book follows a character named Etta who is planning to take her own life. Etta is the exact same age as French.

“I don’t want people to think that I’m writing my plan – I’m not,” French said. She added that writing a novel about suicide caused her to face “a lot of my thoughts and fears about it”. “It’s helpful to put your face in the s* and then come up and breathe fresh air afterwards,” French said.

” “As I approach older age I do think about it. I don’t think I would ever make this choice, but I can understand why someone would,” French continued. The Independent reported that French’s fifth novel tackles themes of loss and suicide.

French spoke about the long shadow her father’s death has cast on her life. ” about her father’s suicide. She described moving through stages of grief from perplexity to sadness, anger, understanding and forgiveness.

Her 2008 memoir Dear Fatty sold 800,000 copies and became the highest-selling celebrity memoir of 2008. French’s first novel, A Tiny Bit of Marvellous, was published in 2010. Enough follows 16 years after that debut novel.

She noted that her father “wouldn’t be that selfish,” prompting her to reframe her understanding of his actions. The Independent reported that French set out to write about getting older, end of life and suicide because, as she has got older, she wants to talk about the big things.