Fall: The Mysterious Life and Death of Robert Maxwell, Britain's Most Notorious Media Baron
368
Fall: The Mysterious Life and Death of Robert Maxwell, Britain's Most Notorious Media Baron
368Paperback
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Overview
“A portrait of one of the most enigmatic figures in the annals of white-collar crime. . . . A well-researched, compelling book that uncovers many mysteries about a media tycoon.”—Kirkus Reviews
From the acclaimed author of A Very English Scandal, a thrilling and dramatic true-life account of the rise and fall of one of the most notorious media moguls of all time: Robert Maxwell.
In February 1991, Robert Maxwell triumphantly sailed into Manhattan harbor on his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, to buy the ailing New York Daily News. Taxi drivers stopped their cabs to shake his hand, children asked for his autograph, and patrons of the hottest restaurant in Manhattan gave him a standing ovation while he dined. Ten months later, Maxwell disappeared off that same yacht in the middle of the night and was later found dead in the water. As John Preston reveals in this entertaining and revealing biography, Maxwell’s death was as mysterious as his remarkable life.
A tightly paced, addictive saga of ambition, hubris, narcissism, greed, power, and intrigue, Fall recounts Maxwell’s rise and fall and rise and fall again. Preston weaves backwards and forwards in time to examine the forces that shaped Maxwell, including his childhood as a Jew in occupied Eastern Europe through his failed political ambitions in the 1960s which ended in accusations of financial double-dealing, and his resurrection as a media mogul—and on to the family legacy he left behind, including his daughter Ghislaine Maxwell.
Preston chronicles Maxwell’s all-encompassing rivalry with Rupert Murdoch—a battle that ruined Maxwell financially, threatened his sanity and lead, indirectly, to his death. Did Maxwell have a heart attack and fall overboard? Was his death suicide? Or was he murdered—possibly by Mossad or the KGB? Few in the twentieth century journeyed as far from his roots as Robert Maxwell. Yet, as Fall reveals, no one, however rich and powerful, can entirely escape their past.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780062997500 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 07/12/2022 |
| Pages: | 368 |
| Sales rank: | 1,100,889 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.20(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.00(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
List of Plates xi
Preface: The King of New York xiii
1 The Salt Mine 1
2 Out of the Darkness 7
3 An Adventurer of Great Style 19
4 Difficulties With Pork 28
5 Mortality 35
6 Down on the Bottom 44
7 The Man Who Gets Things Done 53
8 Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding 63
9 Robert Maxwell's Code of Conduct 75
10 The Lights Go Out 82
11 The Grasshopper Returns 88
12 Strife 93
13 Written in the Stars 101
14 Madness 113
15 In the Lair of the Black Bear 125
16 An Enormous Spread 133
17 A Very Happy Person 138
18 Battle Rejoined 142
19 Homecomings 147
20 The Party of the Decade 154
21 Listening In 162
22 A Glorious New Dawn 165
23 Crossing the Line 170
24 Obsessed 179
25 Three Departures 184
26 What Have I Done to Deserve That? 188
27 Intangible Assets 192
28 Légumes du Maurier 199
29 Selling the Crown Jewels 205
30 Don't You Worry About a Thing 211
31 Hurricane Bob 219
32 A Long Way Down 229
33 Lost 233
34 Found 241
35 The First Autopsy 248
36 A Hero of Our Time 252
37 The Second Autopsy 256
38 The Four Horsemen 261
39 Everything Must Go 268
40 The March of Time 275
41 Curtain Call 281
42 A True Scotsman 286
A Note on Sources 289
Acknowledgements 307
Index 309