Despite selling more than 21m cookery books, the TV chef Delia Smith was turned down by six publishers after serving up her latest book.
But the mononymous Delia has said she was not surprised as she pivots her focus away from the kitchen to the human condition.
Rather than guiding readers through the basics of baking, flop-proof soufflés and high-end home cuisine, she tackles the subject of spirituality with the aim of leading readers towards a more meaningful existence in You Matter: The Human Solution.
The 80-year-old, a Christian who has been interested in spirituality for years, seemed sanguine about rejection before finding a publisher. She told the Radio Times: “I can’t say I’m that surprised. They might have thought it wasn’t going to sell very well.”
But she was always “passionate” about the subject, and for some time had contemplated a book “about spirituality being natural”, she said.
“It’s not something you acquire. It’s already there. And it just gets buried. There’s an inside life and an outside life, outside life tends to dominate, and inner life gets forgotten or suppressed.”
The book includes insight from spiritual thinkers, philosophers, astronauts, poets and pop stars, including Pharrell Williams, who it transpires is one of her favourite musicians.
Showing no sign of retirement, she fitted in her nine-to-five writing shifts around her other great passion – Norwich City FC – of which she is joint majority shareholder. She believes being surrounded by the club’s fans on match days is one of her secrets to remaining youthful.
Her motivation for writing cookery books came from spotting a great need to try to teach people the basics. She continues this work on her website deliaonline.com, with almost 1,500 recipes for people to download. Now she hopes to help people fulfil their need to get in touch with their deeper selves and examine the reasons for human existence.
As for her change in direction, she remains energised by the possibilities for change, especially on the political landscape. Having marched against Brexit, she is critical about the quality of leadership in the world, believing “we need some fresh new ideas on politics”.
