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| Columnist Dempster dies aged 65 | Columnist Dempster dies aged 65 |
| (20 minutes later) | |
| British journalist and former gossip columnist Nigel Dempster has died at the age of 65 after a long illness. | |
| He was an author, broadcaster and Daily Mail diary writer. | |
| The newspaper's editor, Paul Dacre, said Mr Dempster was "a treasured friend and a brilliant colleague" whose "scoops were the stuff of legend". | The newspaper's editor, Paul Dacre, said Mr Dempster was "a treasured friend and a brilliant colleague" whose "scoops were the stuff of legend". |
| Mr Dempster had a daughter, Louisa Beatrix and a stepdaughter, Emily Kate Godolphin Harris, from his second marriage to Lady Camilla Osborne. | |
| In 2005, he was named as one of the 40 most influential journalists of the previous four decades in poll for media magazine Press Gazette. | |
| He was credited with creating the modern newspaper gossip column. | |
| 'Deflating egos' | |
| Mr Dacre said: "Nigel was not only a treasured friend and a brilliant colleague, but also one of the best diary writers Fleet Street has ever known. | |
| "His scoops were the stuff of legend and his zest for life inexhaustible. | |
| "He liked nothing more than to deflate the egos of the idle rich and puncture the pomposity of the powerful. | |
| "It made him one of the most talked-about figures Fleet Street has ever seen. We will all miss him." | |
| Mr Dempster began his career in the 1960s when he teamed up with his friend, the photographer Lord Lichfield, to cover the premier social events of the time. | |
| He worked first for the Daily Express and then the Daily Mail, which he joined in 1971. |