LONDON – Veteran British journalist Bill Deedes, the inspiration for the naive young reporter in the novel ‘Scoop’, has died aged 94, ending a 76-year career during which he was a cabinet minister and newspaper editor.
Tributes flooded in from politicians and colleagues of Deedes, who was still writing for the Daily Telegraph newspaper until shortly before his death on Friday. “Britain owes a huge debt of gratitude to the patriotism and public service given by Bill Deedes,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.”Few have served journalism and the British public for so long at such a high level of distinction, and with such a popular following.”Deedes, the only Briton to have been both a Cabinet minister and editor of a national newspaper, began his distinguished career in 1931 on the now defunct Morning Post.He became best known as the inspiration for the character William Boot in Evelyn Waugh’s satirical novel ‘Scoop’, which tells of a hapless rural reporter who is sent by mistake to cover a civil war in a fictional African state.Deedes had been sent to Abyssinia in 1935 to cover the invasion ordered by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and arrived with a huge amount of luggage.He admitted this might have given Waugh, who was also covering the war for a rival paper, the idea for the character.”I suppose it could have occurred to Waugh there was a slight naivety about my reporting of the first war I had encountered up to then, therefore to that extent William Boot might represent me,” Deedes once said.He won the Military Cross medal for valour during World War Two and afterwards turned to politics, becoming a member of parliament in 1950 and cabinet minister for information services under Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1962.In 1974 he left politics and became editor of the Daily Telegraph, a post he held until 1986.In the latter year he was made a life peer, becoming Baron Deedes.His close friendship with former prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s husband Denis saw him parodied again, this time as the supposed recipient of the long-running “Dear Bill” letters in Britain’s satirical magazine Private Eye.”Bill was a dear friend who will be greatly missed,” Margaret Thatcher told the Telegraph.”He had a uniquely distinguished career in politics and journalism.”After being replaced as editor, Deedes continued to write for the Telegraph, focusing on regions of Africa afflicted by poverty and crisis, and penning his last column on August 3 when he compared the situation in Sudan’s Darfur to Nazi Germany.”Bill Deedes was a giant among men – a towering figure in journalism, an icon in British politics, and a humanitarian to his very core,” said Aidan Barclay, chairman of the Telegraph Media Group.”We will not see his like again.”Nampa-Reuters”Britain owes a huge debt of gratitude to the patriotism and public service given by Bill Deedes,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.”Few have served journalism and the British public for so long at such a high level of distinction, and with such a popular following.”Deedes, the only Briton to have been both a Cabinet minister and editor of a national newspaper, began his distinguished career in 1931 on the now defunct Morning Post.He became best known as the inspiration for the character William Boot in Evelyn Waugh’s satirical novel ‘Scoop’, which tells of a hapless rural reporter who is sent by mistake to cover a civil war in a fictional African state.Deedes had been sent to Abyssinia in 1935 to cover the invasion ordered by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and arrived with a huge amount of luggage.He admitted this might have given Waugh, who was also covering the war for a rival paper, the idea for the character.”I suppose it could have occurred to Waugh there was a slight naivety about my reporting of the first war I had encountered up to then, therefore to that extent William Boot might represent me,” Deedes once said.He won the Military Cross medal for valour during World War Two and afterwards turned to politics, becoming a member of parliament in 1950 and cabinet minister for information services under Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1962.In 1974 he left politics and became editor of the Daily Telegraph, a post he held until 1986.In the latter year he was made a life peer, becoming Baron Deedes.His close friendship with former prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s husband Denis saw him parodied again, this time as the supposed recipient of the long-running “Dear Bill” letters in Britain’s satirical magazine Private Eye.”Bill was a dear friend who will be greatly missed,” Margaret Thatcher told the Telegraph.”He had a uniquely distinguished career in politics and journalism.”After being replaced as editor, Deedes continued to write for the Telegraph, focusing on regions of Africa afflicted by poverty and crisis, and penning his last column on August 3 when he compared the situation in Sudan’s Darfur to Nazi Germany.”Bill Deedes was a giant among men – a towering figure in journalism, an icon in British politics, and a humanitarian to his very core,” said Aidan Barclay, chairman of the Telegraph Media Group.”We will not see his like again.”Nampa-Reuters
