Fern Britton

Fern Britton is an English author and TV presenter. In 2008 Fern released her autobiography Fern: My Story, which became a massive bestseller. At the moment, she has around 20 published books on her belt.

Fern Britton is the daughter of the English actor Tony Britton and Ruth Britton. She was born in Ealing, London. She was educated at Dr. Challoner's High School in Little Chalfont and underwent training in stage management at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Her older sister, Cherry Britton, is a scriptwriter and her younger half-brother, Jasper Britton, is an actor.

Fern Britton worked with a touring theatre company, and in 1979, she started her career with Westward Television in Plymouth. She worked as a newsreader and continuity announcer on Westward Diary, the nightly local bulletin. Later, she switched to present BBC’s Southwest news program, Spotlight.

She became known as the youngest national news presenter to present News After Noon on BBC1. Fern Britton then moved to work for TVS in Southampton, where she hosted the South edition of the news program, Coast to Coast, together with Fred Dinenage.

She has also presented other programs, like Coast to Coast People, The Television Show, and Magic Moments. Since then, Fern Britton has hosted several programs, which include Carlton Television's After Five, BBC's Breakfast Time, London News Network's London Tonight, and BBC 1’s Holiday. She also featured in the first two series of The Brian Conley Show, and, in 1994, Fern Britton went on to present the famous television cookery game show Ready Steady Cook. She hosted the show for a long span of six years until she was succeeded by the chef, Ainsley Harriott.

She joined hands with the British television presenter, Phillip Schofield to host the famous television magazine show This Morning.

Since 1999, Fern Britton has been hosting the show, and the couple was known for their hilarious presentation. The show was a big hit and won the 2003 & 2004 TV Quick Awards for Best Daytime Viewing. It also clinched the 2004 National Television Award for the Most Popular Daytime Show. Fern Britton anchored the Pride of Britain Awards in 2002 and was one of the panelists on the satirical panel show, Have I Got News for You.

In March 1998, she made her debut as a writer with the book Fern’s Family Favourites. In October of the following year, Fern Britton launched her second book Winter Treats and Summer Delights. Fern, My Story was published in November 2008 by Michael Joseph, and it ranked among the Top Ten Bestseller list by The Sunday Times.

Fern Britton said she spent over thirty years writing scripts for television programs, usually short links or a voice-over for a filmed report. It was hard to go from a short news format to a book format, but the editor helped her.

"How would I go from writing 30 seconds (three words per second) of spoken prose to 100,000 words of stuff someone will read silently in their brain? I bit the bullet and had a wonderful editor who kept me on the straight and narrow. Of course, writing your own life story is easier in that you already know the plot and how it’s going to end. The book did well, and I was very grateful. Then, horror, HarperCollins asked me if I’d like to write a novel — blimey! I really didn’t know. Again I was given a top editor who helped, cajoled, and encouraged me to produce New Beginnings," said the novelist.

Fern Britton is married to the chef Phil Vickery and lives with her family at Holmer Green in Buckinghamshire.

Fun fact, in 2006, the song, The Fern Britton Experience, featured in the album Hang The DJ, was named after her by the UK DJ Shitmat.

Photo credit: www.fern-britton.com