Corrie Lee, born in Killarney, Queensland, was a great cook and family and friends always looked forward to her meals. She learned to cook in an era before animal fats, sugar and salt came to be regarded as akin to poison. She used these ingredients freely in her recipes and her dishes were all the more tasty for it. It’s for this reason someone close to her family once quipped, “We’re off to have a Death by Corrie meal.” Corrie loved the term, as it appealed to her offbeat sense of humour. Hence the title of the cookbook was born.

That irreverent sense of humour is the reason you won’t find a single food shot in this cookbook. Instead, each mouth watering recipe is accompanied by an equally entertaining, amusing or irreverent cartoon, illustration or photograph courtesy of some of our greatest visual artists.

Corrie believed that an individual should have the right to choose when to end their life without that process leading to criminal sanction for anyone who might be involved. She was familiar with Dying with Dignity, having attended some of their events and she was fully on board with the cause.

Fittingly, once the cookbooks are printed and made available for sale, funds raised from book sales will directly go to supporting Dying with Dignity, helping to raise awareness about their cause and to keep the momentum moving to have voluntary assisted dying legislated in Australia.

Corrie’s granddaughter, Tanya Lee, and close friend Jenni Walker are the women behind the concept of Death by Corrie Cookbook. Both Jenni and Tanya are avid supporters of Dying with Dignity.

In 2006, Tanya established The CorriLee Foundation which owes its name to
Corrie, whose virtues of perseverance, determination, kindness and generosity are what the Foundation aims to emulate and inspire in others.