"William Hickey" is the pseudonymous byline of a gossip column published in the Daily Express, a British newspaper. It was named after the 18th-century diarist William Hickey.
Column The column was first established by Tom Driberg in May 1933. Martin Stannard, Evelyn Waugh: the critical heritage, Psychology Press, 1997, p,226 An existing gossip column was relaunched following the intervention of the Express's proprietor Lord Beaverbrook. It was titled "These Names Make News".Wheen (2001), The Soul of Indiscretion: Tom Driberg, Poet, Philanderer, Legislator and Outlaw. London: Fourth Estate. pp. 79–81 Driberg described the new feature as "...an intimate biographical column about...men and women who matter. Artists, statesmen, airmen, writers, financiers, explorers..."
Historian David Kynaston calls Driberg the "founder of the modern gossip column",Kynaston (2007), Austerity Britain 1945–51, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, p. 141 which moved away from genteel chit-chat towards commentary on social and political issues. The tone of the column was described by biographer Richard Davenport-Hines as "wry, compassionate, and brimm[ing] with...open-minded intelligence".Davenport-Hines, Richard (2004). "Tom Driberg". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online edition. Retrieved 12 February 2010.(subscription required) Driberg continued to write the column until 1943. BBC News, Driberg always under suspicion, 13 September 1999
The column has been written by numerous anonymous journalists over the decades. In the 1960s, it was written by columnist Nigel Dempster.
In the 1970s, the column was referenced in John Cooper Clarke's poem 'You'll Never See A Nipple In The Daily Express', where "William Hickey meets Michael Caine – again and again and again and again".https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/aidan-smith-a-lament-for-the-lads-mag-1488851
References
External links Daily and Sunday Express website