Viv Nicholson

Viv Nicholson
Born	Vivian Asprey 3 April 1936 (1936-04-03) Castleford, Yorkshire, England, UK
Died	Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, UK
Spouse(s)	Matthew Johnson (1952–?) Keith Nicholson (?–1965) Brian Wright (19?–197?)
Children	4

Vivian Nicholson (3 April 1936 – 11 April 2015) was a British woman who became famous when she told the media she would "spend, spend, spend" after her husband Keith won £152,319 (equivalent to £3.03 million in 2024, adjusted for inflation) on the football pools in 1961. Nicholson became the subject of tabloid news stories for many years due to her and Keith's subsequent rapid spending of their fortune and her later chaotic life.

Early life

Nicholson was born Vivian Asprey on April 3 1936 in Castleford near Leeds. Her father was a miner, but suffered from epilepsy, so was often unable to work. Her mother was asthmatic. As the oldest child she was expected to help with the younger children and scavenge for coal; she was not allowed to take up a scholarship she had won to art school. Having left school at fourteen, she took work at the local liquorice factory making pontefract cakes.

She became pregnant at sixteen and was married to Matthew Johnson, but her first marriage did not last. She was soon having an affair with her neighbour, miner Keith Nicholson. She divorced her first husband and married Nicholson. By 1961 she had four children.

Wealth

Keith won the pools on 30 September 1961. Nicholson and her husband's spending spree over the next few years quickly depleted their fortune. By her own admission, she found it hard to cope with the psychological effects of the money Keith had won. She came to feel distanced from the people she had lived among, who in turn could no longer relate to her, and developed an ever greater longing for a much more affluent lifestyle.

After her husband Keith died in a car crash on 30 October 1965, Nicholson's fortune rapidly dwindled to nothing: banks and tax creditors deemed her bankrupt and declared that all the money, and everything she had acquired with it, belonged not to her but to Keith's estate.

Nicholson won a three-year legal battle to gain £34,000 from her husband's estate, but rapidly lost it all through bad investments.

Difficulties

She relocated to Malta, but, after she assaulted a policeman, the Maltese authorities deported her back to Britain amid a storm of tabloid publicity. She also remarried, but the marriage did not last. Her new husband, Brian Wright, later died in a car crash just like Keith. She entered a mental home to escape from her next husband, who abused her during the four days they lived together; the marriage lasted only thirteen weeks. Her fifth and last husband died of a drug overdose.

Her main problem was her drinking, which became serious during her wealthy years, but which continued for many years after she lost her money. She said,

I was falling down stairs, screaming at people, throwing bottles. It was dreadful. It cost me money I had not got. I might struggle to meet household bills, but when it came to booze I always found the money. Eventually, my weight was down to four stone and I could hardly walk. I had a serious fall and instead of taking it as a warning, I simply drank more to mask the pain. I was a total mess. It was horrible and, most of the time, I didn't know what day it was. I got to like the whisky too much and I needed a bottle of wine to get me to sleep. Then I would get up at 2am and drink another one.

She eventually became sober when her daughter found her unconscious, and took her to hospital, at which time she nearly died.

She made many attempts to regain both her public profile and her lost wealth, such as recording a single (entitled "Spend Spend Spend", written by her brother) and appearing in a strip club singing "Big Spender". None of these efforts proved successful. After opening a short-lived boutique, she ended up penniless and, by 1976, claimed that she could not even afford to bury her fourth husband (with whom she had broken up three years earlier) when he died.

In 1976, after joining the Jehovah's Witnesses, Nicholson co-wrote an autobiography with Stephen Smith, entitled Spend, Spend, Spend which was dramatised for the BBC's Play for Today series by Jack Rosenthal. Spend, Spend, Spend (1977) was directed by John Goldschmidt (who won a BAFTA award for the filmed play) and stars Susan Littler and John Duttine.

Nicholson died at Pinderfields hospital, Wakefield, aged 79, on 11 April 2015, after having had a stroke and dementia.

In culture

A photograph of Nicholson was used on the sleeve of The Smiths' single "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now". Previously Morrissey had borrowed a line from Nicholson's autobiography for the song "Still Ill" ("Under the iron bridge we kissed, and although I ended up with sore lips..."). Another picture of Nicholson taken at Castleford pit was used on the German release of "Barbarism Begins At Home" and on the programme for the Meat Is Murder tour. A photo of Nicholson painting at an easel was used for the cover of a 1987 re-release of "The Headmaster Ritual". However, having become a Jehovah's Witness in 1979, she objected to her image being used for the single's cover due to the use of an expletive in the song's lyrics ("Spineless bastards all...").

A successful musical based on Nicholson's life – Spend Spend Spend – debuted in 1998 and subsequently ran on the West End.