Songwriter Amy Wadge has revealed her collaborator Ed Sheeran has spent a number of months working on the follow-up to his 2014 album 'x'.

The singer-songwriter told fans at the end of last year that he would be taking a break from the limelight after spending long periods of time on the road promoting his second record.

Sheeran and songwriting colleague Wadge recently penned this year's X Factor winner's single, which is called 'When Christmas Comes Around'. Speaking to the BBC, Wadge said Sheeran has spent most of 2016 working on new solo material.

She said: “We said 'let's write a Christmas song' and that's what we did. We wrote this song and Ed said we should send it to Simon Cowell and then I got a call to say it's the X Factor's winners single.

“The way I pay my bills is from songwriting. Ed is so prolific that he's going to write so many songs in a year and not all of those songs are going to see the light of day. With Ed, all of this year has been preparing for his next album and for him to have released a Christmas song it just wouldn't have happened."

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