Of Pencils, Pain and F-Plans
Tony Wardle talks to Audrey Eyton, who works quietly but determinedly behind the scenes for animals.
You probably don’t know her name and you may not know her face because Audrey Eyton avoids publicity like the plague. You will, however, almost certainly know of her extraordinarily successful book, The F-Plan Diet, which sold two million copies in the UK alone and thrust the whole health debate away from animal products and towards wholefoods and carbohydrates. It was a highly perceptive piece of work considering it is now more than 20 years old and still selling – do a search on the web and it comes up with over 4,000 entries.
The F-Plan Diet grew out of Audrey Eyton’s background in journalism. As beauty editor of Woman magazine she realised that dieting was the dominating factor in so many people’s lives yet most diets simply didn’t work. It led to a desire to understand the science behind diet and health and in turn to her launching Slimming magazine. Because of this, Audrey’s book was about reforming the way people eat and expanding their understanding of food. It was everything the Atkins diet isn’t, although every bit as commercially successful! It was followed years later by The Kind Food Guide.
In a way, The F-Plan Diet marked out the road to the territory now occupied by Viva! and sister group VVF but Audrey Eyton’s contribution to our 10 years of growth was more profound than that. Without her, Viva! may never have been born at all.
Juliet Gellatley, Viva!’s founder, had already made her mark as a campaigner and caught Audrey’s eye before taking the daunting decision to go it alone and launch a new campaigning vegetarian organisation with concern for animals unashamedly at its heart. Audrey had the choice of ignoring or supporting this headstrong decision.
“I don’t support organisations, I support people and it is the person in charge who’s all important” explains Audrey. “They must be a good leader, have guts, passion and vigour, a very positive attitude and not be afraid to speak out – you can’t be quiet and polite if you want to succeed. Juliet’s was the most vigorous voice around at that time and she knew how to make it heard. She is feisty and I like feisty! I knew anything she started would be successful because I thought she had what it took in all ways – and I have always trusted my instincts and judgements.”
Audrey Eyton offered advice and made a generous donation to the embryonic Viva! and has remained a supporter ever since. Was it the right decision?
“I was entirely vindicated. Viva! established itself remarkably quickly, chose a good name and punched way above its weight. The truth is, I thought it was good to have a new organisation as complacency creeps in with age. A good leader should keep things feeling current and it’s why I support young people.” This last statement has an almost unbearable poignancy.
Audrey Eyton’s own journey of understanding and compassion began in Blackburn with her parents, who were both sensitive to animals. Her father died when she was 12 and when she speaks of him, you can still hear the pride and warmth in Audrey’s voice:
“We kept chickens and the test came for my father when he decided we had to get rid of one of the cockerels. There was no question of Daddy being able to kill it himself but he couldn’t even take it to the butcher for him to do it. I am so glad to have had a father who couldn’t kill a living creature.”
Matthew Eyton
Audrey’s latent sensitivity was jerked into action by her son Matthew, who began working with her to educate people about the horrors of factory farming, cruelty to farmed animals and the poisoning of our food with pesticides and antibiotics. A magnificently handsome young man, Matthew obtained a degree in divinity at London University and won a post- graduate place at Cambridge. But from the age of 15, Matthew had a rapidly developing mental health problem which eventually revealed itself as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). In its early stages it involved constant hand washing and repeated checks to ensure doors had been closed properly.
Rather than being lost in his illness, Matthew was able to view it objectively, often with great humour. “Matthew found humour in everything. He even made me laugh with droll jokes about his painful psychiatry, which went on for five years. He was articulate, popular, intelligent and a joy to be with. He had style” Audrey says, and again pride and warmth suffuse her words.
“Matthew was very generous hearted and if he passed a tramp on the street he would always give him £10 – usually my £10! It was all part of his sensitivity and generous spirit. I remember once he brought a homeless woman into the house accompanied by all her black bags because he couldn’t bear her situation. He was a very inspiring person.”
The treatments Matthew received had failed to control his illness and by the age of 24 there seemed little else he could do. Audrey explains: “By now he was desperate and knew he needed more help. It was suggested he try some new pills and he was very hopeful they would work. They didn’t.”
Matthew had always believed he would overcome his problems but with what appeared to be the disappearance of his last remaining hope, his life became unendurable and he committed suicide. He left a note saying, “Mummy, please go on helping the animals.” And that’s precisely what Audrey did, by founding the Matthew Eyton Trust and funding projects, people or organisations dedicated to ending farmed animal suffering.
“I’ve never felt, ‘how could he do this?’ I knew why.”
It was not Audrey’s first exposure to absolute grief as she had lost her first son, Richard, at just 10 days old – a seemingly cruel and unjust burden that no one could be expected to bear. But with the death of Matthew, Audrey was determined to fulfil his last wish – she had a cause. “I decided I couldn’t spend my life weeping and the best memorial is the way you live your life. I wouldn’t want to go on living if I wasn’t contributing to this cause.”
So, the birth of Viva! is indirectly related to this appallingly painful event and we will always be conscious of that. We are fighting our hardest to save animals but looked at on a global scale it often feels like an uphill struggle. Audrey Eyton feels similarly.
“The spread of meat eating and the commercial ethic to China and other developing countries is depressing but change can come quickly. Health is beginning to dominate, environmental factors are becoming stronger but perhaps people will only become focussed when they taste disaster – another BSE or something similar, which I’m sure will happen. But whatever the situation, you have to put your head down and keep on fighting. There are people doing just that in every country in the world who think exactly as we do. There is a kind of universal brotherhood developing and that gives me hope.
“Society has become desensitised because most people learn their morality from their parents and religion rather then responding to what is obviously good and bad. Religion has been foremost in teaching that only man matters.” Perhaps surprisingly, Audrey is a Christian but there’s clearly a strong anarchistic streak running through her.
“I like people who work out their morality individually rather than accepting a complete package that’s handed down to them. I liken society to a pencil with just a few represented by the lead tip and who actually make an impression while the majority make up the wooden casing. Juliet is certainly not wooden!”
Thanks for that, Audrey, and thanks for your trust. Whatever Viva! does now and in the future, it will always be a living, vibrant memorial to a courageous young man and a testimony to the determination of his mother.