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Dawn French explains the cycles of "grief, forgiving and understanding" following her father's suicide in her "difficult" new novel
Dawn French’s new novel is a warm take on the question of seniors choosing suicide. But she wouldn’t... would she?
Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/WireImage/Getty Images
- Ed Grenby
Published: Monday, 18 May 2026 at 5:30 pm
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This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.
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I ask Dawn French if she is considering suicide. It’s not a question I expected to be putting to the universally loved comedian, actor and writer but, under the circumstances, it has to be asked.
The prompt for my enquiry is her new novel, Enough, in which a devoted family woman (like French) who lives somewhere that is pretty obviously Cornwall (like French) and is 68 (like French) decides to end her life.
“Etta gathers her family together at the beginning of the day and takes them to a place she loves very much, at the top of a dune near her home,” explains French. “Then she sits them down and tells them she won’t be there by the end of the day because she’s had enough.
“She doesn’t mean she’s fed up of life, she means that she’s literally had enough: she’s had a really great life. She just doesn’t want them to have to go through the sticky last bit, the winter season of life. So she’s made her decision.”
It’s a “difficult subject, the most grown-up book I’ve written”, concedes French, who’s the author of seven previous tomes. But it’s written with warmth, humour and masses of relatability for anyone who’s had a family – ie everyone. “It’s about the latter part of life, and what the value of that is. It’s about acceptance, understanding, control... there’s lots there that I wanted to try and wrap my heart and head around.”
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And those parallels? “I chose to make Etta the same age as me for two reasons. One was pure laziness, because it meant I knew my main character’s timeline – the music, the politics, etc – without having to do any research. And the other is that I think 68 is a little bit too young to be making this decision. I wanted an age where her family would be utterly shocked. If I’d written her as 80, maybe they would have found it more acceptable. And really this book is about who does your life actually belong to?”
That is a question French has had to wrestle with from an early age. “I haven’t talked about it to the press, because there were people in my family to protect, and because it’s a private, difficult thing, but my dad took his own life when I was 18. When you have a suicide in your family, you go through various cycles of grief, forgiving and understanding, but you certainly don’t forgive immediately. You can’t. You’ve just exploded – a grenade goes off in your family and you’re in absolute, dreadful, dripping grief.
“For me, it was confusion and bewilderment and going off to college and trying to just get by and support my mum and my brother. Then, gradually, as I get older, I understand more about some of the issues that my dad might have been going through, and about mental health and depression and pressure and life and all its trickiness – and that’s when the forgiveness happens. I’ve not written about it before, and I’m not really writing about it now, but it’s been in my backpack while I’ve been working on the book.”
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Enough comes with a trigger warning before page one – so was that the author’s idea, or her nervous publishers? “Both, actually. I said we ought to make sure people know what this book is. I asked for it not to come out at Christmas, which is when my books are normally published, ready for a nice easy-to-wrap present. And I think the publisher has been brave about that, because you would certainly shift tons more stock at Christmas, but I thought it’s not quite right for that.
“And yes, the lawyers read it and there were some things I eventually had to remove, because I went into methods a bit too much, and they said I might get imitators.”
There’s also a page “plugging” (if that’s the right word) Samaritans. “They’re remarkable. I’ve got mates who volunteer with them, and one particularly beloved friend who tells me all about how exhausting and satisfying it is, and how it helps with her own mental health.”
Might French not consider manning the phones herself? As a kind of ‘national warm funny auntie’ figure, she’d be a shoo-in, wouldn’t she? “Do you think people would recognise my voice?” she ponders. You’re a Bafta award-winning actor, I point out; do an accent. “Oh God, that would be awful,” she replies.
“The only one I could do would be my West Country family accent, and that might be a bit cod. I’ll leave it to more talented people.” She’s never called Samaritans herself, she says, “but would, in a heartbeat”. Which brings us to that big, awkward, unexpected question: is she planning to “do an Etta”?
“Definitely not. I’ve got wonderful friends, a fantastic husband. I’m on quite solid ground, nowhere even near the brink. But I’m not afraid to have a little peer over the edge.”
For help or support, you can call Samaritans confidentially and free of charge on 116123 or find details for your local branch at www.samaritans.org.
Enough by Dawn French is available from 21 May and is available to pre-order now.
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Authors
Ed GrenbyAssociate Editor, Radio Times
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