'Spend, spend, spend': Lifting the lid on '˜Viv and Me'

She was the football pools winner from Yorkshire who vowed to 'spend, spend, spend' her £125,000 win in 1961.
Viv Nicholson and husband Keith collect their Littlewoods pools cheque from Bruce Forsyth.Viv Nicholson and husband Keith collect their Littlewoods pools cheque from Bruce Forsyth.
Viv Nicholson and husband Keith collect their Littlewoods pools cheque from Bruce Forsyth.

And now Viv Nicholson’s brother has lifted the lid on their relationship in his book published a year after her death.

Geoffrey Asprey, 73, has spent the last few months writing Viv and Me, which he describes as a “controversial”true story about life with his sister.

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Mrs Nicholson, from Castleford, and her husband Keith blew their winnings – the equivalent of more than £3m today – on flashy cars, designer clothes, holidays and partying.

Tragedy struck just four years after the win when Keith was killed at the wheel of his Jaguar. The taxman took everything and Viv was declared bankrupt.

In the book, Mr Asprey reveals untold tales about their childhood, their work performing in theatres together and the regular visits he made to see her at Breadalbane care home in Castleford towards the end of her life.

Mr Asprey said: “There’s a lot of things that the general public don’t know about Viv. The book is the true story about Viv and I and what we have done since we were children.”

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Viv was diagnosed with dementia in 2009 and died from the condition on April 11, 2015, aged 79. Mr Asprey said: “With regards to her spending she realised she had made mistakes. She sat in the care home towards the end of her life and said that to me. Winning didn’t change her, it just made her more of the person that she was.”

And £1 from every copy sold will go to funding dementia treatment, in Viv’s memory.