Three years ago, poor little rich girl Tessa Dahl tried to take her own life.

The deeply troubled daughter of world-famous children's author Roald Dahl was found unconscious in her home at Shillingford, near Wallingford, and spent the next 18 hours in a coma. Since then she has endured long periods in hospital fighting her depression and life-long addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Now 42, she lives in Los Angeles and relies on the good nature of her friends to give her a bed for the night. She is determined to put her life back on track and be a better mother to her four children.

Tessa Dahl has had and lost it all. Her riches-to-rags story rivals legends such as those of Oscar Wilde, pools winner Viv Nicholson, American heiress Barbara Hutton and, more recently, Jeffrey Archer and Jonathan Aitken. In her heyday she was the name on everyone's lips, a famous Seventies beauty and socialite with a string of celebrity lovers that included Peter Sellers and the now disgraced Gary Glitter.

But now her lovely Oxfordshire house, two husbands, four children, multi-million pound trust fund, and some say her sanity, have all gone.

Instead she keeps her possessions in a black bin-liner that she takes everywhere. They include letters from her father, and his photograph.

Three of her children now live with a permanent nanny in London, paid for by her first husband, James Kelly. But at least Tessa is free of the drugs and alcohol. Her fourth child is model Sophie Dahl, who seems to have extracted herself from the family nightmare and is now living in New York and doing well for herself in the fashion world. It is something her mother struggles with.

It seems ironic that one the the most successful children's writers, whose tales are read by youngsters all over the world, was himself such a disastrous father. How big a part Roald Dahl played in Tessa's downfall is a matter of debate, but if he could see her now, penniless in Los Angeles, attending Alcoholics Anonymous clinics and relying on the kindness of friends, he would no doubt try to turn back the clock.

Tessa endured a nightmare childhood. It seems that despite their trappings of wealth and success, her parents were fated. Her father and mother, Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal, brought Tessa up in Hollywood.

Her early years were plagued by tragedy. Her older sister Olivia died from measles, her younger brother Theo was left brain-damaged after his pram was hit by a taxi, and her mother suffered a series of strokes.

Roald's continual infidelity and consequential affair with his wife's best friend, Felicity 'Liccy' Crosland, finally led to the couple's split. Roald and Felicity later married.

Tessa was just six when she was first sent to a psychiatrist. At 11 she was taking anti-depressants.

Not surprisingly, she was fiercely independent and ran away regularly from her boarding school, Roedean. Her mother's influence smoothed the way into acting and she starred in two films before she was 18. Tessa's love life was a constant source of fuel for the gossip columns. At 17 she had an affair with Peter Sellers, then 50. And after a string of very public love affairs, her first child Sophie was born when Tessa was just 19.

But just when her reputation and lifestyle seemed to be spiralling out of control she found happiness with Boston businessman James Kelly, 18 years her senior.

They married, settled in Buckinghamshire and had two children, Clover and Luke. But eight years later the pair were divorced.

A second marriage to financier Patrick Donovan, the son of an Australian diplomat, was even more of a disaster. It lasted just five months - long enough for Tessa to become pregnant with their son Ned.

The marriage breakdown was no doubt also due to the other loves of her life - booze and drugs.

So what went wrong? She admitted that none of her string of husbands and lovers could match up to her father, and happiness always seemed to elude her. But in 1990, when Roald Dahl died of leukaemia in Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, Tessa was inconsolable. Her friends mark his death as the beginning of her real decline.

She sought comfort in the arms of close family friend, actor David Hemmings. He even left his wife for her, but the relationship soon foundered.

Tessa began to squander the multi-million trust fund left by her father, and embarked on a further series of disastrous love affairs. Luckily, her children were already being looked after by a full-time nanny, but things slowly went from bad to worse for Tessa and in 1987 she declared herself bankrupt.

While recovering in London from her suicide attempt at Shillingford she was dealt a further bitter blow - she learned that her former husband James Kelly was taking action to separate her from her children.

She has now healed the rift with her eldest daughter Sophie, though to start with she was openly jealous of the young model's success.

In a recent interview Sophie told a journalist: "There is a bit of jealousy there. Things are happening to me that used to happen to my mother. "It's all been very complicated. At times it's been awful.

"I've asked her not to talk to the press about it. It's a revenge thing for her sometimes, but it's not helpful, it doesn't repair anything."

Sophie's own childhood was certainly unusual. She travelled the world, lived in a New York ashram and spent long periods of time in India with her mother.

Tessa recently tried to explain why her daughter's fame was having an impact on her:

"Turning 40, having a hysterectomy and Sophie becoming so successful all at the same time has been just a tiny bit tricksy," she said. Now the pair phone each other every day and have a much more easygoing relationship.

But what of the future? Tessa admits she has reached rock bottom and knows that for her the only way is up. "Daddy would be turning in his grave if he knew it had come to this," she said.

Story date: Tuesday 01 February

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