Twiggy: The High-Stakes Life of Andrew Forrest

by Andrew Burrell

Andrew Burrell has been a journalist for twenty years, covering business and politics in Australia, South-East Asia and China. He worked for the Australian Financial Review in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth before being posted as a correspondent to Jakarta and Shanghai. Andrew is currently a senior business journalist for the Australian in Perth, where he has covered the WA mining boom since 2006. He won the business prize at the West Australian media awards in 2006 and 2009.

Genres: Biography

330 pages, Paperback

First published September 23, 2013

Reviews

[Wayne Mansfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

The unauthorized biography from broke borrowing from a shady underworld character on September 11 to save his house, to worth $14 BILLION 10 years later...

Best book I have read on life, business and over coming the odds since I read Think and Grow Rich on November 11th 1975.

You should read this book.

[Nick Blamey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly great read. Informative, independent, and challenges the dominant views of Forrest to invite the reader to reassemble the jigsaw themselves. How many cans of Pocari Sweat did Burrell nail to get this over the line? A triumph!

[Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only well written but Andrew Forrest's life itself is indeed a high-stakes one, thereby providing a riveting and suspenseful read all the way. I personally only recently heard of Forrest through his Fortescue company, and his being this year's annual ABC Boyer lecturer. Figured it'd be worthwhile to get to know him better. This short biography provides a satisfactory and enjoyable recount of his life, now off to watch his hydrogen energy lectures!

[Ron W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only reason why I read this book is because I once worked for Andrew's brother, David Forrest. I had the opportunity to meet Andrew a few times as well and he struck me as a very dedicated, driven man. The Forrests have a long history in WA and it was amazing being a part of their lives (albeit less than a year). The book was worth the read.

[Guy Swarbreck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forrest comes across as a dynamic, mercurial and complex character as well as a phenomenal entrepreneur. Flawed of course but interesting. The biography’s unauthorised and probably the better for it. It’s well written, journalistic in style and easy to read quickly. Rather enjoyable.

[Fleur Walsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read into the motivations and character of Andrew Forrest. Amazing feat to build a railway and port against the likes of BHP and Rio to export his Iron Ore to China.

[Christine Poulter · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting insight into the life of a man in the spotlight.

[Alex Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, interesting guy. He has been much in the news in Australia for the last decade, and it is good to get some back story and detail. But the style is very journalistic, reads like it has been culled from newspaper articles over the last 30 years with a bit of filler to glue it together. I felt the tone was also a little ... ungenerous. Sure Twiggy has a good deal of rough with the smooth, and the author strives to present a balanced picture - but it did feel a little like hatchets were being buried in places. It was an unauthorised bio, and suffered from a lack of any real in-depth insight. Sure, any authorised bio of such a huge ego is likely to be a bit hagiographic - but I'm still more interested to hear from Twiggy in his own words or someone really close to him or who has "access all areas" accreditation. A worthwhile read, and decent insight into the personality type it takes to make it to Australia's richest person on your own efforts. Now for the saga of Gina...

[Ned Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andrew Forrest. A truly fascinating person. He does little, if anything, by half. His story has something for everyone because it covers so much. His achievements commenced from a young age and he has maintained that desire to keep going. A very big name in Australia, especially the mining sector.
The author appears to paint a bad picture of Forrest, but to think a person can be as successful as Forrest and be the nicest person on the stage is very naive. If he operates a 10 for me one for you deal, be grateful. Who said he had to give you anything?
I gave the book five stars but took off two because of the authors performance. As a journalist for the Financial Review Burrell was very good, but not so here.
The book is an unauthorized biography, not surprising, remember the author is a journalist.
Some people will say the scurrilous remarks on the back cover, or the less than complementary author's note put them off reading the book; but it was the only book on Andrew Forrest I could find.

[Ben Haddad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. Gets a bit dry but I appreciated the level of detail and the amount of time the author gives to telling stories or elaborating from more than one perspective where possible. Worth a read - especially if like me you were too young to be aware of much of this as it happened.

[Max Cheney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great insight into a complex character

[Tom Fontaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Not the book, the man. Although the book is a decent summary of events.

[Warren Gossett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating biography of Andrew Forrest who lives a few streets away from me.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating + eye-opening read. Does a reasonable job providing both sides of the picture.