I think Bill Deedes would have been amused by the length of time it has taken for news of his death to reach the New York Times. It revealed only today that he had died, aged 94, on August 19.
I imagine that Bill would have pointed out that William Boot, the character in Scoop supposedly based on him, would have delivered the news, via cleft stick, rather more quickly.
He might also have smiled at the NYT's description of him: "a member of England's threadbare gentry... a mild-mannered, uncommonly decent and occasionally befuddled newspaperman who, despite all those qualities, became the dean of British journalists".
