Noel Botham

Noel Botham (23 January 1940 – 23 November 2012) was a British tabloid journalist and prolific author.

He wrote books on the love-life of Princess Margaret (Margaret: The Untold Story and Margaret: The Last Real Princess) and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales (The Murder of Princess Diana), as well a series of books of obscure facts with the theme of "Useless Information", some of which was wildly erroneous; for example, "It would take 150 million years to drive a car to the sun" in The Totally Awesome Book of Useless Information. Also noted as a raconteur and publican, for many years he ran one of Soho's landmark pubs, The French House.

Career Botham was educated at Dulwich College and apprenticed on The Croydon Advertiser, then became the foreign editor for the Daily Sketch at the age of 21. He went on to work for many tabloids, including the News of the World where he was chief investigative reporter for a period. Later, he became European editor of the National Enquirer. The book became "something of a bestseller".