‘Spend, spend, spend’ Viv Nicholson’s son reveals the woman behind Britain’s most famous Pools win

The son of Britain’s most famous Pools winner, has now marked 65 years since her win with warm recollections of her remarkable life.

Howard Nicholson, 65, spoke of his “outrageous” mum, whose £152,000 windfall in 1961 turned a young couple living on just £14 a week into Britain’s most famous lottery-style success stories.

Viv was only 25 in September 1961, when she and husband Keith landed the huge Littlewoods Football Pools jackpot, worth around £3.5 million today.

She became famous for vowing to “spend, spend, spend” and splashed out on flashy cars, designer clothes, holidays, parties and swapping life in a Castleford council house for a ranch-style home in Garforth.

Speaking to the Wakefield Express, Howard, 65, said his mother “was very outrageous all the way through her life” but also deeply generous.

"Behind the headlines, money, marriages, parties and extraordinary stories, she had a generous heart.

“Even when she had very little herself, if someone needed something and she could help, she would try.

"She was caring and a very loving person.”

Her generosity was remained on display during her final years in a care home.

Howard told of receiving a call one Christmas: “This guy rang me from the care home and said 'she's drunk, everybody is on the booze - she has given everybody booze’,” he recalled.

“He said ‘she’s gone to the Christmas hamper and she is giving everybody everything’.”

Keith was a miner and Viv worked in a liquorice factory when they won the jackpot.

But the fairytale was soon hit by tragedy.

Just four years later, Keith was killed when his Jaguar crashed on the A1.

By then, around half of the couple's fortune had been spent. The rest was swallowed up by tax, and eventually Viv was bankrupt.

She went on to appear on the cabaret circuit and was rarely far from the headlines.

When she tried to start a new life in Malta, she was deported after an altercation with police.

An attempt to run a clothes boutique ended in disaster when the shop was destroyed by fire.

Her extraordinary life was captured by the hit musical Spend, Spend Spend, which ended up at the West End.

Even indy legends The Smiths got involved when they used her image on the cover of their 1984 single Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now.

There was even a bizarre musical footnote to his mother's chequered love life, says Howard, who claims singer Morrissey apparently proposed marriage to her.

“He (Morrissey) apparently proposed marriage to mum, which would have made husband number six,” he said.

“I've often wondered how that would have turned out. Knowing mum, Morrissey wouldn't have known whether he was coming or going.”

Howard’s book ‘You Don't Know Viv’ reveals his take on his mum and the truth behind one of Britain's most famous Pools stories.

Sadly, Viv battled alcohol addiction and depression, and latterly, dementia. She died in April 2015 aged 79.

Howard, who has raised funds for Dementia UK, added: “Mum's life was extraordinary. She knew enormous wealth and heartbreaking loss.

“She had fame, fortune, laughter, parties, love, disappointment and more adventures than most people could fit into ten lifetimes.”