My friend Richard Wilson, who has died of cancer aged 78, was a journalist who worked at various times as an opinion editor at the Daily Telegraph, a subeditor at the Express and an assistant editor of the Glasgow Herald. He also spent time in Amsterdam as deputy editor of KLM’s airline magazine, and wrote 11 books.
Born in Forfar, Scotland, Rick was the son of Harry Wilson, a police sergeant, and Jean (nee McDiarmid), a book-keeper. After attending Montrose academy, at the age of 16 he got a job at the Montrose Standard. A first assignment was interviewing the pop star Wee Willie Harris. Other celebrity interviews led to a job with DC Thomson as a showbiz columnist on a teen magazine: he was bylined Paul Destiny and the column was A Date With Destiny. He became a subeditor on the Scottish Daily Express in 1963, moving to the Fleet Street title in 1966.
