Donald Clive Short (23 October 1932 – 3 May 2023) was a British writer, journalist and literary agent.

Early life

Short was born in London and moved to Staines as a child. Short went on to study journalism at Chiswick Polytechnic and his father, a cabinet maker and furniture shop owner, helped him secure a place at the Staines and Egham News local newspaper. At the age of 18, Short was called up for National Service. He went to Nairobi with the RAF and inside base he launched a magazine. While he was in Nairobi he photographed Princess Elizabeth and the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not pr ...

, days before

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...

’s death.

Career

After returning to the Staines and Egham News, Don moved to Cirencester with his wife and began work at the Gloucestershire Echo. A few years later, Don started work at the

Daily Sketch The ''Daily Sketch'' was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton, 1st Baronet. The ''Sketch'' was Conservative in its politics and populist in its tone during its existence through all its ch ...

in Fleet Street and then the

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

in 1959. He got a world scoop about the marriage of

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was an English and American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 19 ...

and

Eddie Fisher Edwin Jack Fisher (August 10, 1928 – September 22, 2010) was an American singer and actor. He was one of the most popular artists during the 1950s, selling millions of records and hosting his own TV show, '' The Eddie Fisher Show''. Actress E ...

and was appointed to the role of Showbiz reporter at the Daily Mirror. He went on to secure several world scoops, including the breakup of

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

and the drowning of

Brian Jones Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English musician and founder of the Rolling Stones. Initially a slide guitarist, he went on to sing backing vocals and played a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones r ...

. He was a close friend and confidant of The Beatles. In 1964 The Beatles dined with Don Short and his wife and their six-year-old daughter at Don’s home.

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

sang Don’s daughter a lullaby and days later, a disbelieving headmistress telephoned Don’s wife to verify the story, and she confirmed it was true. In the years that followed Short had become closer to The Beatles than any other journalist. Short has been credited with coining the term ‘Beatlemania.’

Roy Greenslade Roy Greenslade (born 31 December 1946) is a British author and freelance journalist, and a former professor of journalism. He worked in the UK newspaper industry from the 1960s onwards. As a media commentator, he wrote a daily blog from 2006 to ...

said of Short: ‘I remember Don's story about the break-up f The Beatlesbecause I was a news sub on The Sun at the time. When the first edition of the Mirror arrived, the newsdesk was unable to verify whether it was true. While we were dithering over what to do, wondering if we should follow the Mirror or not, the deputy editor (and former Mirror executive),

Bernard Shrimsley Bernard Shrimsley (13 January 1931 – 9 June 2016) was a British journalist and newspaper editor. Early life and career The son of John, a tailor’s pattern cutter, and his wife Alice, a homemaker, Shrimsley (previously Shremski) was born in ...

, arrived on the floor to say: "If Don Short says it's true then it is." There cannot be a better tribute to a journalist than that. And he was, of course, bang on the money.’ He left the Mirror in 1974 after becoming the Mirror's Chief Showbiz Correspondent. Short ghosted several bestselling books including those of Swedish actress

Britt Ekland Britt Ekland (born Britt-Marie Eklund; 6 October 1942) is a Swedish actress. She appeared in numerous films in her heyday throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including roles in ''The Double Man (1967 film), The Double Man'' (1967), ''The Night They ...

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show''. Sellers featured on a number of hit comi ...

, Lady Norah Docker, and an authorised biography of Engelbert Humperdinck. Short established the Solo Literary Agency Ltd in 1978, which took over syndication for

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

newspaper before moving on to the global market with stories and photos appearing in the

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

, the

Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. Founded in 1982 by Lord Rothermere, it is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first published i ...

and the

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

. Short steered Solo in the direction of celebrity books as they were a lucrative concern for publishers for the first time and corresponded with his experience and contacts in the showbiz industry.

Later years

In November 2015, Short appeared on ITV's 'The Nation's Favourite Beatles Number One' documentary. In 2020, Short published his autobiography, ''The Beatles and Beyond''. Short died of heart failure on 3 May 2023, at the age of 90.

Works

* ''The Beatles and Beyond'' (Wymer, UK)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Short, Don 1932 births 2023 deaths British newspaper journalists 20th-century British writers Beatles historians