...but fans will have to wait until 2020

Victoria Wood is to be the subject of a major new official biography.

But fans will have to wait until October 2020 until the book is released.

It will be written by journalist Jasper Rees with ‘the exclusive authority and full co-operation of Victoria Wood’s estate’.

The title will be published by Trapeze after an auction between nine rival publishing houses, trade website The Bookseller reports.

Wood’s older brother, Chris Foote Wood, has previously released a book about the late comedian’s upbringing, although Wood’s children with magician Geoffrey Durham, Grace and Henry, distanced themselves from it.

His book was postponed for a rewrite after admitting he had ‘given too much emphasis to Victoria's early problems with her weight’.

Rees has previously written a biography of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and the book on which the movie Florence Foster Jenkins was based.

Wood was previously the subject of a 2003 unauthorised biography by Neil Brandwood, which was rushed into a reissue after her death in April 2016 aged 62.

Published: 11 Apr 2018