LONDON, Aug 18: Bill Deedes – the inspiration for the main character in the Evelyn Waugh novel “Scoop”, former cabinet minister and ex-Daily Telegraph editor – died on Friday aged 94, his newspaper said.

The Telegraph Media Group said British journalism’s elder statesman died at his home in Kent, south-east England, after a short illness, two weeks after his last column appeared for the daily newspaper.

Tributes were led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who said Britain owed a “huge debt of gratitude” for Deedes’s public service while former premier Margaret Thatcher said she was “deeply sorry” at his passing.

“He started writing as a professional journalist more than 76 years ago and few have served journalism and the British people for so long at such a high level of distinction and with such a popular following,” Brown said.—AFP