Dempster's People

To celebrate 25 years of the country's most successful gossip column, this is both Dempster's professional autobiography and a behind-the-scenes revelation of all the great stories the diary broke. Dempster's People will be a fabulously readable account of Nigel Dempster's working life and of his famous Diary, and will include: early beginnings with the Hickey column, moving rapidly on to 13 years' association with Private Eye, Richard Ingrams and Peter Cook, focusing on the legal struggles with Goldsmith; the world of Jonathan Aitken and his lovers; how the Playboy Club lost its gaming licence; the writ from Harold Wilson, together with famous writs over the years ('Writs are the Diarist's Oscars', as he is famous for saying); his relationship with Christina Onassis and how the Royals, from Princess Margaret to Princess Diana, engaged with the Diary; how the Guinesses sought his help and how Earl Spencer became a Diary ally; how the Diary became an adjunct of the sporting world and in particular the Sport of Kings; and much, much more of the spiciest gossip column in town through twenty-five years of its history.