He returned to his love of the theatre as drama critic for "The Spectator" (1983–84) and the "London Daily News" briefly published by Robert Maxwell in 1987. He also leaked bookish gossip to "Private Eye" and wrote their 'Bookworm' column. Breaking with his employer Sheil Land in 1994, a court order prevented him from contact with his clients lest he poach them, he set up the Scottish office of Curtis Brown in 1994. The offshoot was quietly closed after Gordon's death. In 1966 he released a collection of poems, "Two & Two Make One", which was published by Akros on a print run of 350 copies. He also wrote half a dozen novels between 1971 and 1980, and later a memoir "Aren't We Due a Royalty Statement" (1993), a title that caused accusations of impropriety by quoting a comment from one of his clients, the Prince of Wales. He married Margaret Eastoe in 1964; they had two sons and a daughter. His daughter Hattie had, at the time of her father's death, just published a memoir of her brother Gareth, who had committed suicide in 1994 at the age of 24. His wife Margaret died of an incurable illness in 1989. Gordon's second marriage was to Maggie McKernan in 1990, with whom he had a son and two daughters. Gordon died aged 63, from injuries sustained in a fall a fortnight earlier outside his home in Edinburgh. His funeral took place at St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh, and later a memorial service was held in London at the church of St-Martin-in-the-Fields on 17 March 2004. He has a small marker stone at the foot of his parents grave, where he is buried, in the western extension of Grange Cemetery in Edinburgh.