Fleet Street veteran Clive Borrell has died after a brief illness. He was 67.
Borrell spent many years as crime correspondent on the Daily Mail and later at The Times. He took early retirement in the late Nineties after long service on The Times newsdesk as deputy news editor. Editors he worked under included William ReesMogg, Harold Evans, Charles DouglasHome and Charles Wilson.
During his reporting career he was dispatched to Eastern Europe to cover espionage trials and his days on the crime beat brought him into regular contact with the Richardson and Kray gangs. At one stage, he and his young family fled their London home following threats from East End gangsters.
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The experiences gained during those days resulted in a book about Britain’s underworld, published in the Seventies.
Borrell was born in London and educated at Battersea Grammar School. He was the oldest of four brothers, all of whom worked in the media. His father, Harry Borrell, who is still alive, was a senior advertising executive with the Daily and Sunday Express.
Borrell’s first break into journalism came after doing his national service in Northern Ireland, when he was taken on as a trainee by Bob Wrack of the South West Lancs News Agency.
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He also worked for Caters in Birmingham and as a staffer on the Dagenham Evening Post.
Borrell’s first national job was with the Mail in Newcastle, before moving to London via Manchester. Most of his career was devoted to hard news, but he had a light touch when it came to feature writing and could be as witty on paper as when he was propping up the bar. His beer drinking prowess was recalled fondly in a recent Press Gazette piece by former Mail and Times colleague, Jack Crossley.
Borrell, who lived in Hindhead, Surrey, leaves a son and daughter.
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