Discover the Best Books Written by Clement Freud

Sir Clement Raphael Freud (24 April 1924 – 15 April 2009) was a German-born British broadcaster, writer, politician and chef. The son of Ernst L. Freud and grandson of Sigmund Freud, Clement moved to the United Kingdom from Nazi Germany as a child and later worked as a prominent chef and food writer. He became known to a wider audience as a television and radio personality. 

Freud was the longest serving panellist on the BBC Radio 4 panel show Just a Minute, appearing in each of the first 143 episodes, and making subsequent regular appearances up until his death in 2009. He was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament in 1973, retaining his seat until 1987, when he received a knighthood.

In 2016, seven years after his death, three women made public allegations of child sexual abuse and rape by Freud, which led to police investigations. Clement Freud was born Clemens Rafael Freud in Berlin, the son of Jewish parents Ernst L. Freud (an architect) and Lucie Freud (née Brasch). He was a grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the brother of artist Lucian Freud. 

His family fled to the United Kingdom from Nazi Germany and his forenames were anglicised to Clement Raphael. He spent his later childhood in Hampstead, where he attended the Hall School, a prep school. He was then educated at two independent schools: at Dartington Hall School, where he boarded, and at St Paul's School in London. He was naturalised as a British subject on 4 September 1939, one day after the outbreak of the Second World War.

During the war Freud joined the Royal Ulster Rifles and served in the ranks, acting as an aide to Field Marshal Montgomery. He later worked at the Nuremberg Trials and in 1947 was commissioned as an officer. Freud married June Flewett (the inspiration for Lucy Pevensie in C. S. Lewis's children's series The Chronicles of Narnia) in 1950, and the couple had five children. Flewett had taken the stage name Jill Raymond in 1944, and after her husband's knighthood has been known as Lady Freud. Freud became an Anglican at the time of his marriage.

Freud was one of Britain's first celebrity chefs. He worked at the Dorchester Hotel and went on to run his own restaurant in Sloane Square at a relatively young age. Freud appeared in a series of dog food advertisements (at first Chunky Meat, later Chunky Minced Morsels) in which he co-starred with a bloodhound called Henry (played by a number of dogs) which shared his trademark "hangdog" expression. In 1964 he appeared in Strictly for the Birds. In 1968 he wrote the children's book Grimble, followed by a sequel, Grimble at Christmas, six years later.

Whilst running a nightclub, Freud met a newspaper editor who gave him a job as a sports journalist. From there he became an award-winning food and drink writer, writing columns for many publications.