Book description
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. '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 Tom Bower has a
distinguished reputation as an investigative historian, broadcaster and
journalist and is the author of several ground-breaking books about
tycoons. His most recent works are 'Conrad and Lady Black', 'The
Squeeze' and his biographies of Simon Cowell and Bernie Ecclestone.
Among his other much-debated biographies are those of Mohammed Fayed,
Richard Branson and Robert Maxwell.
