A new authorised biography of the late comedian Victoria Wood has shed light on her difficult childhood and strained relationship with her mother. Journalist Jasper Rees, who wrote the biography, was given access to Wood's personal archive and interviewed those close to her.
Rees said Wood's mother Helen was a key figure in understanding her life. 'Victoria was sort of abandoned for her teenage years,' he said. Wood became a devoted mother to her own daughter, Grace, born when she was 35, 'the mother she had never had herself'.
Wood's best work had a comic breadth and energy few contemporaries could match. She found success as a stand-up comedian, actress, sketch-writer, singer, composer, producer, screenwriter and playwright. The only ambition unfulfilled when she died from cancer aged 62 was to write a big film.
Rees noted there were 'two Victorias' – the warm public figure and the private person who could be domineering in the studio. She always hated parties, even her own, preferring to be in control on stage. The biography includes intimate correspondence from her failing marriage and final months.
