Revealing roots to Victoria


Revealing roots to Victoria

Conrad Astley
7/ 4/2006

A biography of Victoria Wood's mother gives an insight into life in east Manchester before the Second World War. Conrad Astley spoke to its author - the comedian's brother.

FOR all her acute observations of north west family life, Victoria Wood has spoken and written very little about her own upbringing.

Only an unofficial biography, published several years ago, exists to provide any details about the private life of the comedian, actress and writer who has kept herself very much to herself, despite the fame which the last 25 years have brought her.

But now, readers can delve into the life that made her what she was - or at least, what her mother was.

Nellie's Book: The Early Life Of Victoria Wood's Mother, has been written by Chris Foote Wood, Victoria's elder brother.

The story tells how Helen - who became known as Nellie - was born in Bradford, east Manchester, and suffered an incredibly poor childhood during the 1920s and 30s.

"It's about how they managed," he said. "She came from a big Catholic family and they were undoubtedly very poor.

"She went hungry and used to go to the factories asking the men if they had any food."

But the book also recalls how his mother had a gift for quirky humour, something which fans of Chris's sister will find very familiar.

"She used to entertain the kids down the street or in school by putting on these little plays," he said. "She used to call them soap operas, strangely enough.

"She'd start on a Monday at playtime, when she'd tell the first part of the story, then it'd go on all through the week and it would end on Friday. She'd make the whole thing up as she went along. My father was a very talented musician and author, but it was my mother that gave Victoria her character, as well as the knack for social observation that she has.

"Victoria's also very sharp and off-the-wall - my mother was exactly like that.

"It's easy to see where she got a lot of her character from." Nellie was also involved in the Young Commun- ists and regularly attended meetings and demonstrations - regardless of the trouble this brought her.

Although Chris only takes the story up to 1945, by which time she had left school with no qualifications to work in a steel mill, he said she went on to study English literature at Manchester University while in her 50s, and even became a lecturer and examiner.

Chris got the idea of writing his mother's story after her death in 2001, when he was given piles of old family documents - letters, photographs and journals. He knew his father, Stan, who died in 1993, promised to help her write the story, but it never happened and he decided to finish the job.

Chris, who left the family home in Bury to settle in County Durham - where he ran a news agency for 30 years - used his recently-inherited family archive to write the book.

THE 65-year-old author said Victoria was keen to keep the archive in the family and give his book her blessing. "We always work together as a family," he said. "When we got all this material, my sisters agreed that I should have it.

"When I told them I was writing the story of our mother, they were quite supportive about it, but we have a thing in our family of letting each other do our own thing.

"Victoria wrote the foreword, so that's her contribution."

Chris already has a sequel in the bag - Stan's Story, about his father.

His dad had been an equally colourful character. He was a semi-professional musician and a writer, who penned episodes of Coronation Street, radio and television plays, and even a novel called Death On A Smoke Boat - a tale of Second World War espionage that led the children to suspect he had been involved in the Secret Service.

He also became an agent for the Liberal party, perhaps inspiring Chris' other career - as a Liberal Democrat councillor who has stood for Parliament in various north east seats. "I was originally going to put it all together in one book," he said. "But because my mother had such a great story I knew that wouldn't do justice to it.

"My father kept a journal. He used to write in it every day from 1943 up until 1982. It's a fascinating story, but that's to come."

Nellie's Book is published by Sutton.


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