Andrew Dickson died suddenly following a two-year illness. He had a distinguished career in journalism spanning 30 years and was known for writing and editing the Mandrake diary column in The Sunday Telegraph.
His career began at Granada Television in 1977, where he worked as a researcher for such programmes as What the Papers Say.
Friend and colleague Brian Morris, who was producing the show at the time, remembers his years with Dickson. “Andrew was excellent at his job and worked on the show when I believe it was in its heyday,” he said.
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“His opinions were very strong, he enjoyed life and loved a good gossip like the rest of us.”
For a short spell Dickson produced a documentary series, A People’s War, which was shown on Channel 4. He soon moved into the field of print, landing a job as media correspondent at The Observer in 1984.
He later joined The Sunday Telegraph writing features, news stories, profiles and business features, and went on to work under deputy editor Richard Addis, writing and editing the Mandrake column. Bob Porter also worked with Dickson on the Telegraph at this time as chief reporter.
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He said: “Andrew was an extremely good journalist, very clever and wellread.”
Dickson had a real passion for literature. One of his stage plays, Dracula’s Last Dance, was produced by Verity Bargate at the Soho Poly Theatre, London and a film option was later sold to Vladek Sheybal.
In 1992 Dickson spent time editing and writing the Grub Street column in The Sunday Times and wrote articles on management topics in the Daily and Sunday Telegraphs.
Towards the end of his career he freelanced, writing obituaries for The Times and undertaking PR work for selected small business clients and consultancy work for larger organisations.
His work was published in The Times, Sunday Times, Irish Times, Evening Standard magazine and Training Officer and his cartoon strip Werebear was published in the Evening Echo, Cork.
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