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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘I was born with a warped sense of humour and when I was carried home from being born it was Coronation Day and so I was called Victoria but you are not supposed to know who wrote this anyway it is about time I unleashed my pent-up emotions in a bitter comment on the state of our society but it’s not quite me so I think I shall write a heart-warming story with laughter behind the tears and tears behind the laughter which means hysterics to you Philistines…’
From ‘Pardon?’ by Vicky Wood, Aged 14. Bury Grammar School (Girls) Magazine, 1967

In her passport Victoria Wood listed her occupation as ‘entertainer’ – and in stand-up and sketches, songs and sitcom, musicals and dramas, she became the greatest entertainer of the age. Those things that might have held her back – her lonely childhood, her crippling shyness and above all the disadvantage of being a woman in a male-run industry – she turned to her advantage to make extraordinary comedy about ordinary people living ordinary lives in ordinary bodies. She wasn’t fond of the term, but Victoria Wood truly was a national treasure – and her loss is still keenly felt.

Victoria had plenty of stories still to tell when she died in 2016, and one of those was her own autobiography.

‘I will do it one day,’ she told the author and journalist Jasper Rees. ‘It would be about my childhood, about my first few years in showbusiness, which were really interesting and would make a really nice story.’

That sadly never came to pass, so Victoria’s estate has asked Jasper Rees, who interviewed her more than anyone else, to tell her extraordinary story in full. He has been granted complete and exclusive access to Victoria’s rich archive of personal and professional material, and has conducted over 200 interviews with her family, friends and colleagues – among them Victoria’s children, her sisters, her ex-husband Geoffrey Durham, Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Dawn French, Anne Reid, Imelda Staunton and many more.

What emerges is a portrait of a true pioneer who spoke to her audience like no one before or since.

Publisher Review

This superb biography ensures we can't forget how revolutionary she was. -- Tanya Gold * THE OLDIE * Rees is excellent on Wood's long struggle. -- Roger Lewis * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH * Packed with enlightening anecdotes and revealing interviews with her family and closest friends. A real treat. -- Martin Chilton * INDEPENDENT * Joyous and revealing... If you're a diehard Wood fan (as I am) you'll find this account of her life wholly engrossing, and it also stands as a wonderful tribute to a pioneering entertainer and her exacting comic genius. -- Caroline Sanderson * THE BOOKSELLER, Editor's Choice * You can almost feel him riffling files, rewinding tapes, so carefully is it pieced together. Yet the reward is a 360-degree biography that transforms a beloved entertainer into a real human being, moving about a recognisable world: unhappy family home, provincial theatre, TV studio, celebrity's Highgate terrace, even, heartbreakingly, hospital room. It's a book for fans, of course, but it also documents 40 years of British entertainment, filtered through a life that stretched so much further than a few knackered bras. -- Victoria Segal * SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE * When I met Victoria I gushed at her and she told me to stop, which was sweet and kind and saved us both! I won't gush now as per her non gushing desires, except to say that I would love people to read this beautiful book about the woman I will be forever grateful for in leading the way for me and other women in comedy and for making my life a jollier one. * Miranda Hart *