assaulting a policeman, the Maltese authorities deported her, and she returned to Britain. She remarried, but her new husband Brian Wright was later killed in a car crash. She entered a mental home to escape from her next husband Graham Ellison, who abused her during the four days in which they lived together; the marriage lasted 13 weeks. Her fifth and final husband, Gary Shaw, died of a drug overdose. Nicholson's alcoholism became serious during her wealthy years but continued for many years after she had lost all of her money. She eventually achieved sobriety. She made many unsuccessful attempts to regain both her public profile and her lost wealth, such as recording a song (titled "Spend Spend Spend", written by her brother) and appearing in a strip club singing "Big Spender." 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 (they had broken up three years earlier) when he died. In 1978, Nicholson co-wrote an autobiography with Stephen Smith titled Spend, Spend, Spend that 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 at the age of 79 on 11 April 2015 after having a stroke and suffering from dementia. In culture A photograph of Nicholson was used on the sleeve of the Smiths' single "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now." Morrissey had previously 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 Wheldale Colliery, Castleford, West Yorkshire 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, as she had become a Jehovah's Witness in 1979, Nicholson objected to the use of her image for the single's cover because of an expletive in the song's lyrics ("Spineless bastards all..."). A successful musical based on Nicholson's life called Spend Spend Spend debuted in 1998 and subsequently ran in the West End. References 1936 births 2015 deaths