Family to finish John Peel book

John Peel was one of the UK's best-loved broadcasters

John Peel's widow and children are to finish writing the DJ's life story after he left an uncompleted autobiography when he died.

The late radio legend wrote more than 50,000 words before suffering a heart attack in Peru in October.

His wife Sheila and their four children will add "biographical material and personal reminiscences" to the book, to be published in October 2005.

It would be a "terrible waste" to let his work stay unpublished, Sheila said.

"We thought long and hard about what we should do with John's autobiography," she said.

'Very excited'

"This book was very important to him and he was very excited about writing it." He would have wanted his family to complete it, she added.

Larry Finlay, managing director of publisher Transworld, said he was working with the family to "publish the book that I know John himself would have wanted".

The DJ signed a deal worth up to £1.6m for the autobiography with Transworld after a bidding war in April 2003.

Mr Finlay had previously said it was "sad" that unauthorised biographies had been hastily written since John Peel's death. Two have been published in the last week.

The publishers of those books have said they were only doing what countless newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations and websites had done since his death - paying tribute to a much-loved broadcaster.

BBC Radio 1 has scheduled a night of tribute shows for Peel on 16 December.