Cassandra, Andy Capp and me...

By Alan Rimmer

One of my proudest possessions is an 11" alabaster statue of Andy Capp, the pot-bellied, beer-swilling, working class cartoon Geordie who disgracecd the pages of the Daily Mirror in the days when it sold 5 million copies a day

The statue belonged to Sir Bill Connor, the Mirror's acidtongued Cassandra who famously described witnessing an H-Bomb explosion as "A dress Rehearsal for the Death of the World "

Bill Connor died in 1967 after a fall But he had been ill for some time, an illness which he attributed to the bomb test, codenamed Orange Herald, he witnessed off Malden Island in 1957.

I know this because his widow, Lady Isobella, wrote to me several times after I produced a series of articles about the bomb tests in the 1980s She, too, blamed the bomb and passed to me some of her husband's private correspondence from his days in the south pacific

Sadly most of this correspondence has disappeared with the passage of time, but I remember being struck by how terse and to the point his letters home and to the Mirror offices were One said simply: "Boom! Postponed."

It was Cassandra's telegrams that particularly amused me To the Mirror's financial manager in accommodation at the Honolulu Hilton for indefinite period "

Another commanded: "I am advised I am to have dinner with the captain of the flagship, please arrange tailor to visit my room to fit me for tropical whites."

I'm not sure how the monastic bean counters would react today But this was Cassandra and his word ruled Andy Capp, in fact, came to me via the family of Ted Fenna, the Mirror's northern editor and great friend of Bill Connah A family member and friend of Lady Connor, said: "She wanted you to have it "

I regarded it as the highest honour, far more important than the modest journalistic awards I have since accumulated.

An example of Cassandra's journalistic integrity came when the bomb test was delayed and the top brass offered to provide a description to enable the reporters to meet their deadlines. This produced graphic accounts based on what they were told that duly appeared in England a few days later.

But Bill was having none of it And even though it meant the Mirror would be scooped by the rest of Fleet Street, he refused to budge

He waited for the blast to take place so he could witness it with his own eyes before picking up his pen.

London he wrote: "I am obliged to go to the south pacific on top secret mission. Kindly arrange

His famous account which is reproduced opposite shows he was, as usual, right.