Sir William Neil Connor (26 April 1909 – 6 April 1967) was an English newspaper journalist for the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print c ...

'' who wrote under the pen name of "

Cassandra Cassandra or Kassandra (; Ancient Greek: Κασσάνδρα, , also , and sometimes referred to as Alexandra) in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecies but never to be belie ...

Biography

William Connor wrote a regular column for over 30 years between 1935Dennis Griiffiths (ed.) ''The Encyclopedia of the British Press, 1492–1992'', London and Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992, p. 199 and 1 February 1967 with a short intermission for the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, his column restarting after the war with the words "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, it is a powerful hard thing to please all of the people all of the time." He took his

pen-name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

from

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...

, a tragic character who is given the gift of prophecy by

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

but is then cursed so that no one will ever believe her. The very popular column helped the ''Mirror''s readership to grow to the highest in its history during the 1950s. His columns were simply written, in keeping with his working class readership, and comprised slices of human life, including famous people, events and later a personal diary of his everyday life and thoughts – though at times he could be controversial. He worked alongside cartoonist

Philip Zec Philip Zec (25 December 1909 – 14 July 1983) was a British political cartoonist and editor. Moving from the advertising industry to drawing political cartoons due to his abhorrence of the rise of fascism, Donald Zec (journalist)"Zec, Philip (190 ...

at the ''Daily Mirror'' and the pair courted controversy in 1942 with an illustration, captioned by Connor, which

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

and others perceived as an attack on government.''Cassandra: Reflections in a Mirror'' by Robert Connor, Cassell (1969) Churchill complained to Cecil King, then a director of the company, of a writer (Connor) being "dominated by malevolence". Connor forgave Churchill though, and later wrote a moving obituary of the wartime Prime Minister ("Sword in the Scabbard", 25 January 1965) and attended his funeral service at St. Paul's Cathedral. In his best known columns, Connor said the author

P. G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jeeve ...

was a Nazi collaborator, a charge from which George Orwell defended Wodehouse, and in 1956 he strongly suggested that the entertainer

Liberace Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer, and actor. A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin, he enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordi ...

was a homosexual. The suggestion was true, but Liberace sued for libel and won in 1959. During the case both Connor and Liberace lied under oath.Roy Greenslad
''Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Profits from Propaganda''
London: Macmillan (Pan), 2004, pp. 89–90, 89 According to

Roy Greenslade Roy Greenslade (born 31 December 1946) is a British author and freelance journalist, and a former professor of journalism. He worked in the UK newspaper industry from the 1960s onwards. As a media commentator, he wrote a daily blog from 2006 to ...

, Connor was "an odd mix of liberal and reactionary", citing for the former his column attacking the enactment of the death sentence delivered to Ruth Ellis due on the day of its publication. He wrote: "The one thing that brings stature and dignity to mankind and raises us above the beasts will have been denied her – pity and the hope of ultimate redemption." In the years leading up to his death, Connor wrote more humorous columns and was regarded with affection by ''Mirror'' readers. Subjects ranged from the times he received wrong number calls intended for a nearby railway goods station, to the mysterious person who sent him a fresh goose egg once a year. Connor was knighted in 1966. His final column ended with the words "Normal service in this column is temporarily interrupted while I learn to do what any babe can do with ease and what comes naturally to most men of good conscience – to sleep easily o' nights." He died aged 57 in hospital, a month after fracturing his skull in a fall. Since his death, the column Cassandra in the ''Daily Mirror'' has continued to be sporadically published. A new columnist,

Keith Waterhouse Keith Spencer Waterhouse (6 February 1929 – 4 September 2009) was a British novelist and newspaper columnist and the writer of many television series. Biography Keith Waterhouse was born in Hunslet, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. H ...

, took over Connor's place in the newspaper, but not his byline.

References

External links

"The Press: Cassandra of the Mirror"
''Time'', 11 October 1954
Cassandra, includes Connor's ''Cassandra's Cats'' book and various photos.

''Crying All The Way To The Bank'' at Amazon.co.uk

''Cassandra At His Finest And Funniest'' at Amazon.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Connor, William 1909 births 1967 deaths British male journalists 20th-century pseudonymous writers