Ross Benson (1948-2005)
Michael Rhodes
(Daily Telegraph, 10/03/2005)
Ross Benson, who has died aged 56, was a journalist of great
versatility, as fine a foreign correspondent as he was a purveyor of
society gossip; always immaculately dressed and fastidiously groomed,
he was also a man of considerable courage and personal charm.
As a teenager, he had harboured a burning ambition to be a foreign
correspondent, and he retained his enthusiasm for the big foreign story
to the end of his life. Although he made his name at the Daily Express,
for the past eight years he had been a senior feature writer at the
Daily Mail; in the period since the war on Saddam Hussein, he had
delivered some excellent dispatches from Iraq.
Benson's close attention to his appearance was the object of much
good-humoured joshing among his colleagues. His third wife, the royal
expert Ingrid Seward, once revealed that he employed a former
Buckingham Palace footman to shine his Lobb shoes, and suggested that
her husband possessed more pairs than Imelda Marcos.
Bob Geldof told a vintage Benson story from the occasion when, in the
1980s, he took a party of journalists to Ethiopia to witness the Live
Aid famine relief efforts. At one stage during the tour, Benson went
missing from the DC9 in which they were about to travel and was later
found standing behind the plane's propeller drying his hair. Benson
denied the story: "What actually happened was that we were on a plane
and I said to Geldof: 'One of the problems with Ethiopia is that there
are no hair-driers'. He replied: 'You can dry your f****** hair under a
f****** propeller'. It was a merry jest between old mates."
But Benson's consciousness of his matinée idol looks was always
tempered by a vein of good-humoured self-deprecation. As editor of his
own gossip column in the Daily Express, he famously conducted a running
feud with his rival at the Mail, Nigel Dempster, each accusing the
other of having had a face-lift and of other vanities. Dempster
referred to Benson as "the pompadoured poltroon", while Benson called
the balding Dempster "the tonsured traducer".
The feud was finally brought to an end when Benson returned to the
Daily Mail in 1997 as a senior feature writer and foreign reporter. "I
will treat him with kid gloves and welcome him with a caviare and
lobster lunch," Dempster announced magnanimously. "He's no longer a
rival."
Despite Benson's urbane, metropolitan image, he was always thoroughly
professional. When given a foreign assignment, his first act was always
to visit a bookshop to buy material about the theatre he was being
asked to cover; he would spend much of the flight to his destination
immersed in his books so that he would arrive fully informed.
Benson's colleague on many of his more dangerous foreign assignments
was the Express photographer John Downing, who remembered Benson as
"honest, brave and a fine writer". Disguised as tribesmen, they covered
the fighting in Afghanistan between the Mujaheddin and the Russians;
moving around in the mountains, they often trekked for 12 hours a day.
They had little food or water, and were shot at by Russian gunships.
After one particularly arduous day, Benson threw himself down on a
rock, lit a cigarette and asked his cameraman: "What on earth's a
lounge lizard like me doing in a place like this?"
In El Salvador they were in a restaurant when another customer was shot
dead. In Beirut, during the Lebanese civil war, they were fired on in
the sports stadium. In Nicaragua with the Contras, Benson and Downing
were crossing a river in a dugout canoe when government helicopters
fired on them; they just managed to reach the bank unscathed, and
escaped into the jungle as the helicopters continued to fire into the
trees. It was probably the closest they came to being killed in the
line of duty.
On another occasion, the two men were sent to hitchhike along what was
believed to be the world's most dangerous highway, the so-called "Road
of Death" that crossed Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala and on which
lorries transporting goods were frequently attacked by guerrillas.
Benson also covered, without Downing on this occasion, the Iran-Iraq
war.
Ross Benson was born in Scotland on September 29 1948 and educated at
schools in Africa, Australia and Holland and then at Gordonstoun, where
he was in the same class as Prince Charles. After leaving school, he
worked for London Life magazine, and in 1967 moved to the Daily Mail,
where he worked on the diary column. In 1973 he moved to the Daily
Express, where he was to remain for the next 24 years in a wide variety
of roles: foreign editor, US correspondent, chief foreign
correspondent, special feature writer and, from 1987, editor of his own
gossip column.
It was a period of fevered speculation about the marriage of the Prince
and Princess of Wales, about which Benson claimed to have a special
insight, having been a class-mate of the Prince's. In 1993, following
the publication of Andrew Morton's Diana: Her True Story, Benson sought
to put the "Prince's side" in Charles: The Untold Story - an
"impertinent project", as one reviewer observed, "but not impertinent
enough to do any good". In fact, there were some who doubted whether
Benson was as close to royal sources as he liked to suggest. His wife
Ingrid said that he had been frozen out of royal circles as a young
journalist after writing a piece for Woman's Own about the Prince's
days at Gordonstoun.
Nonetheless, the day he left the Daily Express (August 31 1997), the
Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash, and the paper immediately
phoned Benson, pleading with him to return for a week to cover the
aftermath of her death and her funeral. He consented.
Back on the road again for the Daily Mail, Benson travelled to Kosovo,
Ulster, Afghanistan and latterly Baghdad, where his brilliant
dispatches from the front line brought the filthy reality of war to his
readers and won him last year's Edgar Wallace Award for Fine Writing
from the London Press Club.
As well as his book about the royal marriage, Benson wrote an
authorised biography of George Best, entitled The Good, the Bad and the
Bubbly; he also wrote a biography of Paul McCartney.
He was three times married: first, in 1968 (dissolved 1974), to Beverly
Rose, with whom he had a son; secondly, in 1975 (dissolved 1986), to
Zoë Bennett, with whom he had a daughter; and thirdly, in 1987, to
Ingrid Seward, with whom he also had a daughter.
Ross Benson died suddenly on Tuesday night, after attending the
Champions' League match in which Chelsea defeated Barcelona at Stamford
Bridge.
Psyche's Knot
So young to die, quite sad really.
Michael Rhodes
Psyche's Knot wrote:
> At least Chelsea won !
> So young to die, quite sad really.
His daily express gossip column was always entertaining.
Psyche's Knot
This Right Royal shambles
By ROSS BENSON, Daily Mail
12:32pm 19th February 2005
What a chaotic, absurd, tawdry and decidedly unroyal mess this wedding
has become. After 33 years of waiting, Camilla Parker Bowles was hoping
to marry her prince in grand style in Windsor Castle. Instead, she is
going to have to make do with a plain £285 ceremony at the local
Guildhall in the middle of town, surrounded by a jostling and quite
possibly hostile crowd - and without even a best man for support.
It has also exposed Camilla for the first time to the icy displeasure
of her mother-in-law. Normally so reserved and self-contained, the
Queen is furious at what she regards as nothing less than a farce that
will cause immense damage to the tattered remnants of her son's regal
prestige.
She has made her feelings clear to the Prince of Wales and his
bride-to-be, about whom she harbours such misgivings.
Having dithered for so long over this provocative, controversial
remarriage, the prince finally made up his mind last month - and then
insisted on pushing everything through in two months. In his haste,
however, he completely overlooked the vital legal details.
He wanted to marry in Windsor Castle, the stone heart of royalty for a
thousand years. But he failed to check whether a civil ceremony could
take place there. It can - but only if the castle is turned into a
venue for public weddings for the next three years.
Of course the Queen refused to countenance that intrusion. Instead,
Camilla and her prince, whose self-obsession so often blinds him to the
practicalities, have been forced to abandon their plans for an elegant
ceremony behind the castle walls and move it to the Guildhall, which is
surrounded by pubs, restaurants and hotels.
Apart from anything else this represents a major security problem for
the police who must check through drains, man the nearby windows and
marshal the baying hordes.
Question of prestige for the Queen
Under the 1994 Marriage Act ceremonies held in approved civil venues
must be 'solemnised in premises with open doors'. The Registrar General
has since ruled that this means the 'public must have unfettered
access'.
For the Queen it is a matter of prestige. As far as she is concerned,
the whole production has become unforgivably 'common'. If they follow
the practice of the venue Charles and his bride will enter to music
from a portable CD player and sit on wooden chairs.
To add to the low key mood, it emerged yesterday that Charles has
broken with royal tradition and decided not to have a best man. Camilla
too has chosen to dispense with bridesmaids and maid of honour.
Charles is facing searching questions about how his highly-paid
officials have allowed this state of affairs to come about. End of
quote
Q
>"Psyche's Knot" <p...@e-garfield.com> wrote in message
>news:1110481730....@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>I like this piece he wrote a few days ago:
>This Right Royal shambles
> By ROSS BENSON, Daily Mail
>12:32pm 19th February 2005
>What a chaotic, absurd, tawdry and decidedly unroyal mess this wedding
>has become. After 33 years of waiting, Camilla Parker Bowles was hoping
>to marry her prince in grand style in Windsor Castle. Instead, she is
>going to have to make do with a plain £285 ceremony at the local
>Guildhall in the middle of town, surrounded by a jostling and quite
>possibly hostile crowd - and without even a best man for support.
(snip)
Maybe they had him killed. Do you think? -- Q
volcaran
By that reckoning we can expect a flood of "Fleet Street" funerals :)
Q
"volcaran" <volc...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1110493096....@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Q wrote:
> >"Psyche's Knot" <p...@e-garfield.com> wrote in message
> >news:1110481730....@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> >I like this piece he wrote a few days ago:
> >This Right Royal shambles
> > By ROSS BENSON, Daily Mail
>
> >12:32pm 19th February 2005
>
> >What a chaotic, absurd, tawdry and decidedly unroyal mess this
wedding
> >has become. After 33 years of waiting, Camilla Parker Bowles was
hoping
> >to marry her prince in grand style in Windsor Castle. Instead, she
is
> >going to have to make do with a plain Ł285 ceremony at the local
> >Guildhall in the middle of town, surrounded by a jostling and quite
> >possibly hostile crowd - and without even a best man for support.
> (snip)
>
> Maybe they had him killed. Do you think? -- Q
By that reckoning we can expect a flood of "Fleet Street" funerals :)
LOL. I can hardly wait. Maybe I should buy a new outfit. I'd pay the
fare just to make sure they're really permanently dead. -- Q
volcaran
Q wrote:
> "volcaran" <volc...@aol.com> wrote in message
> news:1110493096....@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>
> Q wrote:
> > >"Psyche's Knot" <p...@e-garfield.com> wrote in message
> > >news:1110481730....@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> > >I like this piece he wrote a few days ago:
> > >This Right Royal shambles
> > > By ROSS BENSON, Daily Mail
> >
> > >12:32pm 19th February 2005
> >
> > >What a chaotic, absurd, tawdry and decidedly unroyal mess this
> wedding
> > >has become. After 33 years of waiting, Camilla Parker Bowles was
> hoping
> > >to marry her prince in grand style in Windsor Castle. Instead, she
> is
> > >Guildhall in the middle of town, surrounded by a jostling and
quite
> > >possibly hostile crowd - and without even a best man for support.
> > (snip)
> >
> > Maybe they had him killed. Do you think? -- Q
>
> By that reckoning we can expect a flood of "Fleet Street" funerals :)
>
> LOL. I can hardly wait. Maybe I should buy a new outfit. I'd
pay the
> fare just to make sure they're really permanently dead. -- Q
Permanently dead? Surely most that are dead are (accept the odd vampire
and Morgana's crawling foxes) :) Judging by some of the tired old
stories being trotted out at the moment, I suspect quite a few are
already dead - its just noone has noticed yet.
volcaran
accept? except even!
Q
"Permanently dead" is when they've stopped typing. -- Q
Sacha
1110493096....@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com, "volcaran"
<volc...@aol.com> wrote:
>
> Q wrote:
>>> "Psyche's Knot" <p...@e-garfield.com> wrote in message
>>> news:1110481730....@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>>> I like this piece he wrote a few days ago:
>>> This Right Royal shambles
>>> By ROSS BENSON, Daily Mail
>>
>>> 12:32pm 19th February 2005
>>
>>> What a chaotic, absurd, tawdry and decidedly unroyal mess this
> wedding
>>> has become. After 33 years of waiting, Camilla Parker Bowles was
> hoping
>>> to marry her prince in grand style in Windsor Castle. Instead, she
> is
>>> going to have to make do with a plain Ł285 ceremony at the local
>>> Guildhall in the middle of town, surrounded by a jostling and quite
>>> possibly hostile crowd - and without even a best man for support.
>> (snip)
>>
>> Maybe they had him killed. Do you think? -- Q
>
> By that reckoning we can expect a flood of "Fleet Street" funerals :)
>
Wouldn't that be a cataract? ;-)
--
Sacha
(remove the weeds for email)
Mrs.H
"Michael Rhodes" <migx73all...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1110446459.9...@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
We always enjoyed the antiques show that he co-hosted.
Mrs.H