William Connor

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This article is about Sir William Neil Connor, the left-wing journalist for The Daily Mirror who wrote under the pseudonym of Cassandra. For William Duncan Connor, the New Mexico politician, see William D. Connor.

Sir William Neil Connor (26 April 1909 - 6 April 1967), was a left-wing journalist for The Daily Mirror who wrote under the pseudonym of Cassandra.

He wrote a regular column for over 30 years between 27 July 1935 - 1 February 1967 with a short intermission for World War II, his column restarting after the war with the words "As I was saying before I was interrupted, it is a powerful hard thing to please all of the people all of the time."^[1] He took his pen-name from Cassandra in Greek mythology, a tragic character that is given the gift of prophecy by Apollo but is then cursed so that no one will ever believe her.

His writings, described as "polished-up barrack room style", were either bitter attacks on people and events or a personal diary of his every-day life and thoughts. His most famous columns include the claims that P. G. Wodehouse was a Nazi collaborator, a charge from which George Orwell defended Wodehouse^[2] and the outing of Liberace for which the paper was sued and lost. During the Second World War he enraged Winston Churchill, who called him "malevolent". Shortly after this Connor joined the army for the remainder of the war.

In one of his most famous columns, Connor attacked the death sentence passed on Ruth Ellis, writing: "The one thing that brings stature and dignity to mankind and raises us above the beasts will have been denied her - pity and the hope of ultimate redemption." His comments contributed to an increased antipathy to the death penalty which eventually resulted in its abolition in the UK.

In the years leading up to his death Connor wrote more humorous columns and was regarded with affection by Mirror readers. Subjects ranged from the time he received wrong number calls intended for the local railway parcels service, to the mysterious person who sent him a fresh goose egg once a year.

His final column ended with the words "Normal service in this column is temporarily interrupted while I learn to do what any babe can do with ease and what comes naturally to most men of good conscience - to sleep easily o' nights."

Since his death the column Cassandra in The Daily Mirror has continued to be sporadically published. A new columnist, writer Keith Waterhouse, took over Connor's place in the newspaper, but not his byline.