Dawn French appeared on The One Show on Wednesday to talk about her new book, Enough20:13, 20 May 2026Dawn French has opened up about why she wanted to write her emotional new "end of life" book.‌The actress' new book, Enough, follows a woman named Etta who at 68 invites all of her family to go to the beach as the sun is rising, where she tells them that by sunset, she won't be there anymore.‌"She's made a decision to excuse her kids from the difficult, prickly last part of life," Dawn said as she appeared on The One Show. "And she has made this decision thinking that it's extremely selfless to do that."‌The star told the BBC show's hosts Angellica Bell and Clara Amfo that she felt that the fact her own father had died by suicide gave her some "permission" to write the story. Dawn also shared that her own age - 68 - was also a factor when she penned the book.She said: "I feel a little bit of permission to write this theme because I am a child of suicide myself. My dad took his life when I was 19. And I have lived with the various stages of grief about that for my whole life.‌"Etta's story is very different to my dad's situation. But this is somebody electing to do this. So it's extremely morally questionable. There was a time when suicide was illegal, a sin, insurance doesn't pay out. There's so much shame around it."And in tribute to my dad, really, I just refuse to have shame around this subject. I think it's a thing we need to talk about."Noting that it was "a heartwarming but emotional story", Angellica asked Dawn about choosing to write it.‌The star replied: "Well, I think as I'm getting older and I am 68 and I've written Etta as 68 also, partly because I'm lazy and because I didn't have to do any research then. I know the music, I know the politics."And partly because controversially, I think Etta is a bit young to be making this decision that she makes."She went on: "When I started to write this book, listen, I'm getting older and I'm deciding not to be afraid of big themes and big scary stuff because the way to deal with big scary stuff is to write it with joy and to write it with humour, which I hope there's plenty of."‌Dawn also said that when she started to write Enough, she didn't know what the ending was going to be.She said: "I thought, 'I'll write the arguments of all the characters and see if I can persuade me, Dawn, the writer, and Etta, my main character, away from her decision'."Article continues below"I set out to write a life-affirming book about end of life, if you like," she added. "So lots of people learn lots of things during this book, I hope. And I'll wait to see what readers say to find out if I have written what I set out to write."For emotional support, you can ring the Samaritans 24-hour helpline on 116 123, visit a Samaritans branch in person or go to the Samaritans website.The One Show airs at 7pm on BBC One on weekdays.