Overview

The riveting tale of how the wanabee aristo Conrad Black and his social-mountaineering wife Barbara gulled their way into the City, the Tory party, Wall Street and High Society. This new paperback edition will be fully updated to include details of Black’s high-profile trial for corporate fraud, sure to claim international attention. The rise and fall of the media tycoon Conrad Black is rivalled in its spectacular extravagance only by the machinations of his social-mountaineering wife, Barbara Amiel. Together their story of overweening ambition and greed is a modern-day classic of hubris. There is no bolder or better-informed chronicler of the follies of the rich and powerful than Tom Bower. Fearless in the approach which has brought him accolades for his gripping exposés of Robert Maxwell, Tiny Rowland, Mohammed Fayed and Richard Branson, Bower reveals how the Blacks financed a billionaire’s lifestyle and won friends and influence in London and New York. Born into considerable wealth in Canada, Conrad Black bought and sold (but never effectively managed) several businesses, from mining and tractors to broadcasting companies and newspapers. In 1985 he bought the Telegraph group in London, where very little was known of the controversy over his past financial dealings. In 1992 he married Barbara Amiel, who later famously said, ‘I have an extravagance that knows no bounds’. Besotted with his wife, he began living way beyond his means. Fabulous parties, jewellery, clothes, private jets and homes followed. In 2003 an independent report in America accused him of ‘outright fraud’, ‘ethical corruption’ and ‘corporate kleptocracy’ – allegations that he will vigorously deny at his trial in Chicago in 2007. This edition will be updated to include the full story of the trial in all its sensational detail. Tom Bower’s book, based on over 150 interviews with bankers, politicians, celebrities, power-brokers and close friends, is packed with intimate revelations. It is a hugely entertaining account of gullibility in high places.

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9780007247165

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Reviews

'A wonderfully gripping and hilarious book!meticulously researched and written in clear and uncluttered prose devoid of hyperbole!hugely entertaining and revelatory.' The Sunday Times 'A unique and valuable force in the British Press: an investigative reporter who sinks into crooks and charlatans!a relentlessly damning account.' Nicholas Shakespeare, Daily Telegraph 'A masterly performance.' The Observer 'An extraordinary tale.' The Independent 'Bower has assembled a formidable case for the prosecution!skilfully documented.' Evening Standard 'A gripping cautionary tale which still awaits its denouement.' The Economist 'Riveting!once hooked it's hard to put down.' Sunday Times Praise for 'Maxwell: The Outsider': 'It should be compulsory reading for all journalists, accountants, lawyers and crooks.' Daily Mail 'Not only a gripping read but a valuable tract for our times.' Sunday Telegraph Praise for 'Broken Dreams: Vanity, Greed and the Souring of British Football': 'A tour de force!the evidence it assembles is devastating.' Observer 'Devastating!an indictment of football that all fans should read and understand.' The Times

'A wonderfully gripping and hilarious book!meticulously researched and written in clear and uncluttered prose devoid of hyperbole!hugely entertaining and revelatory.' Sunday Times 'A unique and valuable force in the British Press: an investigative reporter who sinks into crooks and charlatans!a relentlessly damning account.' Nicholas Shakespeare, Daily Telegraph 'A masterly performance.' The Observer 'An extraordinary tale.' The Independent 'Bower has assembled a formidable case for the prosecution!skilfully documented.' Evening Standard 'A gripping cautionary tale which still awaits its denouement.' The Economist 'Riveting!once hooked it's hard to put down.' Sunday Times Praise for 'Maxwell: The Outsider': 'It should be compulsory reading for all journalists, accountants, lawyers and crooks.' Daily Mail 'Not only a gripping read but a valuable tract for our times.' Sunday Telegraph Praise for 'Broken Dreams: Vanity, Greed and the Souring of British Football': 'A tour de force!the evidence it assembles is devastating.' Observer 'Devastating!an indictment of football that all fans should read and understand.' The Times

Author Information

Tom Bower is the author of twenty-three best-selling books. In the late 1950s he travelled to communist Czechoslovakia, and while a student at the LSE he was known as 'Tommy the Red'. As a journalist, between 1969 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990 he travelled across communist East Germany and spent much of his time during the 1970s reporting for BBC TV with British strikers, especially the miners led by Arthur Scargill. In 1989 he worked for three years in Russia, interviewing high-ranking Soviet intelligence officers who played the spy game against the West. He reported wars from Vietnam, the Middle East and South America, where he encountered hard-left idealists and latterday commissars. Bower's experience of myriad wars, elections, corrupt politicians and shady businessmen cured him of his Marxism, but not of his curiosity and innate scepticism. Dangerous Hero is the latest of his many bestselling and critically acclaimed books.  

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