A long-serving regional daily columist credited with inventing the term ‘Beatlemania’ has died aged 91.

Tributes have been paid to Rex Makin, who wrote for the Liverpool Echo and has been described as “one of the best known men on Merseyside”.

In his day job he was the family solicitor to Beatles manager Brian Epstein, and was credited with inventing the term ‘Beatlemania’.

Rex began writing his ‘Makin His Point’ column for the newspaper in 1993 and was such an institution on Merseyside that the paper even splashed on his death yesterday.

In an obituary, Echo journalist Paddy Shennan wrote: “Rex could be cutting and caustic – he was an incredible gossip – and was never shy of letting people have the benefit of his always strongly-held opinions. Sometimes they were pithy. Sometimes they were poisonous.

“His Echo column, initially called Makin His Point (which he always managed to do), was very carefully read (and re-read) by Echo executives.

“On occasions, certain lines had to be left out for legal reasons. It was ironic, really, that the column had to be handled with such care, bearing in mind it was written by a solicitor.”

During his career, Rex also provided legal advice to a variety of celebrities and sports personalities including John Lennon, Gerry Marsden, Bill Shankly, Anne Robinson, Ken Dodd and Carla Lane.

Paddy added: “Rex was 68 when he became an Echo columnist – to be a journalist, he told me, had been his last ambition in life.

“It was a part of his week which he enjoyed immensely. He was incredibly proud of the column and would often ring the Echo features editor the day before publication to ask: ‘Did you see what I’ve written about so-and-so? Funny isn’t it?’

“Invariably, he would be referring to a joke at a powerful person’s expense. But Rex should never have been dismissed as a crusty, bitter and twisted old man. There was a kindly benefactor hiding behind that fearsome facade.

“He could be deadly, but he was also deadly serious and passionate about education, the arts and Merseyside, itself.”