Dawn O’Porter has built a career around curiosity. From television documentaries and lifestyle programming to bestselling fiction, the Scottish-born writer and presenter has continually explored subjects ranging from identity and relationships to food, fashion and modern womanhood. Now, with her first memoir, Hungry Eyes, she is turning that curiosity toward her own life.
A Memoir About Life, Food and Ambition
At 47, O’Porter has already experienced several distinct chapters of her career. She began in television production before becoming a presenter and documentary maker, later establishing herself as a novelist with books including Paper Aeroplanes and The Cows.
Her latest project, Hungry Eyes: A Memoir of Appetite, Ambition and the Odd Bag of Wotsits for Dinner, brings together many of the themes that have shaped her life. Food, ambition, family and memory all play an important role in the book.
Her Auntie Jane Remains Her Greatest Inspiration
One of the most touching revelations from O’Porter’s interview concerns her aunt, Jane, whom she describes as her greatest role model.
Jane took O’Porter in when she was 10 following the death of her mother. Rather than focusing only on grief, Jane filled the family home with food, cooking and people, helping create an environment where O’Porter could begin to heal.
Now 89 and still cooking, Jane remains an important influence in O’Porter’s life. Her memories of family gatherings also help explain why food and hospitality have such an emotional place in the writer’s story.
A Life Shaped by Appetite
The title Hungry Eyes reflects more than O’Porter’s relationship with food. Her answers suggest an appetite for experiences, creativity and life itself.
She jokingly admits that chips are her ultimate guilty pleasure, saying she could eat them throughout the entire day. Her playful honesty is typical of an interview in which serious reflections sit alongside deliberately humorous observations.
Getting Older Has Not Scared Her
While O’Porter admits to concerns about the future, she offers a surprisingly positive perspective on aging.
Asked what frightens her about getting older, she says that so far, growing older has made almost everything better. It is an attitude that contrasts with the anxiety often surrounding aging and suggests that experience has brought her greater confidence rather than regret.
Her biggest frustrations, meanwhile, are considerably more relatable. She jokes about running out of HRT and admits that she wishes her stomach looked different, while also poking fun at her own tendency to interrupt people when she thinks her story is better.
Family, Anxiety and a Very Unusual Keepsake
O’Porter’s reflections become more personal when discussing motherhood and the things that keep her awake at night.
She identifies anxiety, concerns about something happening to her children and writing deadlines among her nighttime worries. At the same time, she looks back fondly on the early years of motherhood, remembering life in Los Angeles with her family, a pool, a dog and a Siamese cat.
Her answer about what she wants to leave her children is particularly unexpected: the freeze-dried remains of her beloved Siamese cat.
A Career Still Driven by Curiosity
Living in London with her husband, actor Chris O’Dowd, and their two children, O’Porter continues to balance family life with writing and creative work. Her career has moved effortlessly between television, journalism, fiction and memoir, with each stage offering another way to explore people and culture.
With Hungry Eyes, she turns that lens inward. The result appears to be a memoir that combines humor with vulnerability, celebrating food, family, ambition and the messy realities of growing older.
