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Fall: Winner of the Costa Biography Award 2021
A dramatic, gripping account of the rise and fall of the notorious business tycoon Robert Maxwell from the acclaimed author of A Very English Scandal - available for pre-order now
In February 1991, Robert Maxwell made a triumphant entrance into Manhattan harbour on board his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine. He had come to complete his purchase of the ailing New York Daily News. Crowds lined the quayside to watch his arrival. Taxi drivers stopped their cabs to shake his hand, children asked for his autograph and when Maxwell went to dine in the most fashionable Chinese restaurant in Manhattan, all the diners gave him a standing ovation.
10 months later, he disappeared off the same yacht and was found dead in the water. Within a few days, Maxwell was being reviled as the embodiment of greed and unscrupulousness. No one had ever fallen so far and so quickly.
What went so wrong? How did a man who had once laid such store on the importance of ethics and good behaviour become reduced to a bloated, amoral wreck?
'Preston is a natural storyteller' The Times
344 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 9, 2021
305 people are currently reading
2500 people want to read
About the author
John Preston
28 books159 followersJohn Preston is the arts editor and television critic of the Sunday Telegraph. He is the author of three highly acclaimed novels, including Kings of the Roundhouse (2005), and a travel book, Touching the Moon. He lives in London.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 319 reviews
May 20, 2021
I think John Preston, author of the brilliant, "A Very English Scandal," could make anyone interesting. Not that it would really take too much effort to make the mercurial, outrageous, provocative Robert Maxwell fascinating. What is harder, is to make the reader feel sympathy for the volatile, unstable and corrupt tycoon; but somehow Preston does make you feel a certain compassion for the self-styled, 'Bob the Max,' and certainly for his long-suffering wife Betty.
This title begins with Maxwell's triumphant take-over of the troubled, "New York Daily News," beset by union troubles, a massive wage bill and antiquated machinery. The book then returns to Maxwell, or rather Jan Hoch's, birth in the Czechoslovakian province of Ruthenia (later reclaimed by Hungary and then absorbed into the Soviet Union) in 1923 to poor, Jewish Orthodox parents. Despite his poverty, young Jan was intelligent and attended school; quickly abandoning his lessons when war broke out and ending up in Budapest, fighting for the Allies and ending up in England.
Jan Hoch had a way of re-inventing himself. From Ivan du Maurier, through Captain stone, Private Leslie Jones, Lance-Corporal Leslie Smith and later settling on Robert Maxwell. This had to be final, as his long-suffering bank manager, frankly fed up with the paperwork, threatened to close his account if he changed his name again... Still, if his name was fixed, Maxwell had much else that he could change. Now married to Elizabeth Meynard, who he met in Paris in 1944, the couple had nine children - Maxwell himself was one of nine children - seven of whom survived.
Settled in England and now a family man, Maxwell set out to make his fortune. Through publishing, acting as a member of parliament, a long-running spat with Rupert Murdoch, buying The Mirror and more, we follow his rise and his fall. Maxwell was a man who literally could not stop. He couldn't stop talking - as a new Member of Parliament, his fellow MP's struggled to interrupt him, while a bemused President Bush used Maxwell's need to take a breath to quickly excuse himself and flee a dinner before he could begin again. He couldn't stop eating. Having had a poor, and hungry, childhood, he would order Chinese take out for nineteen people for a dinner for two and literally cram food into his mouth. Emotional, cruel to his children and wife, sometimes vulnerable, full of guilt at the loss of his family in the Holocaust, increasingly suspicious, to the point where he bugged his offices, obsessive and a total swindler. Even before he was moving pension funds around to prop up his businesses, he was cheating his newspaper competitions and just seemed to feel he could make life follow his rules.
It was obvious that, at some point, Maxwell's teetering empire would collapse. As one quote says, his actions were, "the increasingly desperate actions of a desperate man," and his behaviour becoming ever more unpredictable. Even as the vultures circled, Maxwell went missing from his yacht; his body later found in the water. Was it accident suicide or murder? Did he fake his death? Was he a spy, assassinated or pushed? As ever with this larger than life character, there were no obvious answers. However, Preston does an excellent job of taking the reader through the evidence, autopsies, rather enthusiastic funeral and about turns as the mess that Maxwell had left behind became apparent. A riveting book by an author who has become a must read.
This title begins with Maxwell's triumphant take-over of the troubled, "New York Daily News," beset by union troubles, a massive wage bill and antiquated machinery. The book then returns to Maxwell, or rather Jan Hoch's, birth in the Czechoslovakian province of Ruthenia (later reclaimed by Hungary and then absorbed into the Soviet Union) in 1923 to poor, Jewish Orthodox parents. Despite his poverty, young Jan was intelligent and attended school; quickly abandoning his lessons when war broke out and ending up in Budapest, fighting for the Allies and ending up in England.
Jan Hoch had a way of re-inventing himself. From Ivan du Maurier, through Captain stone, Private Leslie Jones, Lance-Corporal Leslie Smith and later settling on Robert Maxwell. This had to be final, as his long-suffering bank manager, frankly fed up with the paperwork, threatened to close his account if he changed his name again... Still, if his name was fixed, Maxwell had much else that he could change. Now married to Elizabeth Meynard, who he met in Paris in 1944, the couple had nine children - Maxwell himself was one of nine children - seven of whom survived.
Settled in England and now a family man, Maxwell set out to make his fortune. Through publishing, acting as a member of parliament, a long-running spat with Rupert Murdoch, buying The Mirror and more, we follow his rise and his fall. Maxwell was a man who literally could not stop. He couldn't stop talking - as a new Member of Parliament, his fellow MP's struggled to interrupt him, while a bemused President Bush used Maxwell's need to take a breath to quickly excuse himself and flee a dinner before he could begin again. He couldn't stop eating. Having had a poor, and hungry, childhood, he would order Chinese take out for nineteen people for a dinner for two and literally cram food into his mouth. Emotional, cruel to his children and wife, sometimes vulnerable, full of guilt at the loss of his family in the Holocaust, increasingly suspicious, to the point where he bugged his offices, obsessive and a total swindler. Even before he was moving pension funds around to prop up his businesses, he was cheating his newspaper competitions and just seemed to feel he could make life follow his rules.
It was obvious that, at some point, Maxwell's teetering empire would collapse. As one quote says, his actions were, "the increasingly desperate actions of a desperate man," and his behaviour becoming ever more unpredictable. Even as the vultures circled, Maxwell went missing from his yacht; his body later found in the water. Was it accident suicide or murder? Did he fake his death? Was he a spy, assassinated or pushed? As ever with this larger than life character, there were no obvious answers. However, Preston does an excellent job of taking the reader through the evidence, autopsies, rather enthusiastic funeral and about turns as the mess that Maxwell had left behind became apparent. A riveting book by an author who has become a must read.
January 21, 2022
Robert Maxwell is perhaps now best known as the father of convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell. However, back in the 1980s in Britain and elsewhere, he was an enormous figure in national life.
He had been born one of seven children to parents in the Czechoslovakian mountain village of Slatinské Doly (now part of Ukraine) and he rose from abject poverty to build an extensive publishing empire which included Mirror Group Newspapers.
Having loved John Preston's previous book A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment (2016), I was keen to read this one. When it was included in the 2021 Baillie Gifford prize shortlist I was even keener still.
John Preston has done it again. Every part of Maxwell's story is fascinating.
Maxwell escaped Nazi occupation by fleeing to France as a teenager. Sadly his parents, four siblings and most of his extended family were to die in the Holocaust. After joining the Czechoslovak army in exile, he was evacuated to Britain and joined the British army and fought in Normandy and won the Military Cross for heroism on the Dutch-German border; the medal was pinned to his chest by Field Marshal Montgomery.
That's just the start of an amazing story with, at its centre, a meteoric rise to wealth and riches.
By the time he died things had spectacularly unravelled. His companies' finances were in disarray including, most notably, his fraudulent misappropriation of hundred of millions of pounds from the Mirror Group pension fund.
If you enjoy biographies of idiosyncratic characters who lead extraordinary lives then you will devour this.
5/5
A dramatic, gripping account of the rise and fall of the notorious business tycoon Robert Maxwell from the acclaimed author of A Very English Scandal
In February 1991, Robert Maxwell made a triumphant entrance into Manhattan harbour on board his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine. He had come to complete his purchase of the ailing New York Daily News. Crowds lined the quayside to watch his arrival. Taxi drivers stopped their cabs to shake his hand, children asked for his autograph and when Maxwell went to dine in the most fashionable Chinese restaurant in Manhattan, all the diners gave him a standing ovation.
10 months later, he disappeared off the same yacht and was found dead in the water. Within a few days, Maxwell was being reviled as the embodiment of greed and unscrupulousness. No one had ever fallen so far and so quickly.
What went so wrong? How did a man who had once laid such store on the importance of ethics and good behaviour become reduced to a bloated, amoral wreck?
'Preston is a natural storyteller' The Times
He had been born one of seven children to parents in the Czechoslovakian mountain village of Slatinské Doly (now part of Ukraine) and he rose from abject poverty to build an extensive publishing empire which included Mirror Group Newspapers.
Having loved John Preston's previous book A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment (2016), I was keen to read this one. When it was included in the 2021 Baillie Gifford prize shortlist I was even keener still.
John Preston has done it again. Every part of Maxwell's story is fascinating.
Maxwell escaped Nazi occupation by fleeing to France as a teenager. Sadly his parents, four siblings and most of his extended family were to die in the Holocaust. After joining the Czechoslovak army in exile, he was evacuated to Britain and joined the British army and fought in Normandy and won the Military Cross for heroism on the Dutch-German border; the medal was pinned to his chest by Field Marshal Montgomery.
That's just the start of an amazing story with, at its centre, a meteoric rise to wealth and riches.
By the time he died things had spectacularly unravelled. His companies' finances were in disarray including, most notably, his fraudulent misappropriation of hundred of millions of pounds from the Mirror Group pension fund.
If you enjoy biographies of idiosyncratic characters who lead extraordinary lives then you will devour this.
5/5
A dramatic, gripping account of the rise and fall of the notorious business tycoon Robert Maxwell from the acclaimed author of A Very English Scandal
In February 1991, Robert Maxwell made a triumphant entrance into Manhattan harbour on board his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine. He had come to complete his purchase of the ailing New York Daily News. Crowds lined the quayside to watch his arrival. Taxi drivers stopped their cabs to shake his hand, children asked for his autograph and when Maxwell went to dine in the most fashionable Chinese restaurant in Manhattan, all the diners gave him a standing ovation.
10 months later, he disappeared off the same yacht and was found dead in the water. Within a few days, Maxwell was being reviled as the embodiment of greed and unscrupulousness. No one had ever fallen so far and so quickly.
What went so wrong? How did a man who had once laid such store on the importance of ethics and good behaviour become reduced to a bloated, amoral wreck?
'Preston is a natural storyteller' The Times
February 24, 2024
February appears to be "books about the world of journalism" month for me. There was Calvin Trillin's The Lede: Dispatches from a Life in the Press, and this, a biography of the late media baron Robert Maxwell.
Although I knew his name, before reading this book I didn't have the same awareness of Robert Maxwell as of Rupert Murdoch. I'm so glad Paula K. suggested this book as a buddy read! The word "fascinating", in the can't-look-away-from-a-train-wreck sense of the word, describes the man and the book does justice to his bizarre personality and the arc of his life.
Robert Maxwell (the last of a half-dozen names he used over the years) was born in rural Czechoslovakia. After a childhood notable for its poverty, including an ongoing scarcity of food, he made his way into the larger world in his late teens, getting caught up fighting for the Allies in World War II. The circumstances surrounding these years are unclear; suffice it to say that he appears to have embellished the facts to produce views of events that were more flattering to him.
After the war he used his gift for languages to begin his frequently-checkered business career. He stumbled into publishing academic journals, leveraging the backlog of material that had built up during the war to achieve remarkable profits. From there he eventually moved into journalism and politics. His time in Parliament was undistinguished (with the exception of accusations of financial mismanagement), and his career as the publisher of various newspapers was a roller-coaster of success and failure. His competition with Rupert Murdoch extended over decades; as clever as Maxwell could be, Murdoch invariably outmaneuvered him in the newspaper ownership wars.
That bizarre personality I mentioned is difficult to summarize, other than to say it frequently took the form of irrational actions and inexplicable decision making. Arguably, it reflected his childhood and his wartime experiences. His hunger, not only for possessions, but quite literally for food, could be ascribed to the poverty of his youth. In later years he was morbidly obese; his staff was known to lock food away from him in an effort to keep his appetite under control. He also appeared to suffer survivor's guilt over the Holocaust. While he was making his way up the ranks of the military, most members of his family were dying in concentration camps.
But that brings us back to the old nature/nurture question. Other people having gone through similar trials have coped in ways that were less intensely self-focused. Maxwell was often unkind, even to his immediate family. (I found myself wondering repeatedly why his wife never left him. Could be that she was afraid that he'd manage to deny her access to their 9 children. He didn't seem particularly fond of them, but he was fond of winning.)
He died in 1999, while at sea on his yacht Lady Ghislaine. It's not known whether he had a heart attack and fell overboard, committed suicide, or was assassinated by one of the many individuals and organizations he had fallen out with. All the chicanery he'd used to keep his businesses solvent had been exposed (the expression "robbed Peter to pay Paul" would sum it up) and he would shortly have been prosecuted for his financial crimes. Clearly he was under a great deal of stress and had made many enemies, so any of those possible explanations for his death could be true.
The broad strokes of what I've written don't begin to describe the freakish details that circled around so many events in his life - or death. The book does that job well, and I can heartily recommend it for anyone interested in a juicy read about a larger than life personality.
p.s. After finishing this book I had a bit of compassion for Ghislaine Maxwell. Somehow I doubt that she would have ended up as part of Jeffrey Epstein's sordid world had she not been Robert Maxwell's youngest child.
Although I knew his name, before reading this book I didn't have the same awareness of Robert Maxwell as of Rupert Murdoch. I'm so glad Paula K. suggested this book as a buddy read! The word "fascinating", in the can't-look-away-from-a-train-wreck sense of the word, describes the man and the book does justice to his bizarre personality and the arc of his life.
Robert Maxwell (the last of a half-dozen names he used over the years) was born in rural Czechoslovakia. After a childhood notable for its poverty, including an ongoing scarcity of food, he made his way into the larger world in his late teens, getting caught up fighting for the Allies in World War II. The circumstances surrounding these years are unclear; suffice it to say that he appears to have embellished the facts to produce views of events that were more flattering to him.
After the war he used his gift for languages to begin his frequently-checkered business career. He stumbled into publishing academic journals, leveraging the backlog of material that had built up during the war to achieve remarkable profits. From there he eventually moved into journalism and politics. His time in Parliament was undistinguished (with the exception of accusations of financial mismanagement), and his career as the publisher of various newspapers was a roller-coaster of success and failure. His competition with Rupert Murdoch extended over decades; as clever as Maxwell could be, Murdoch invariably outmaneuvered him in the newspaper ownership wars.
That bizarre personality I mentioned is difficult to summarize, other than to say it frequently took the form of irrational actions and inexplicable decision making. Arguably, it reflected his childhood and his wartime experiences. His hunger, not only for possessions, but quite literally for food, could be ascribed to the poverty of his youth. In later years he was morbidly obese; his staff was known to lock food away from him in an effort to keep his appetite under control. He also appeared to suffer survivor's guilt over the Holocaust. While he was making his way up the ranks of the military, most members of his family were dying in concentration camps.
But that brings us back to the old nature/nurture question. Other people having gone through similar trials have coped in ways that were less intensely self-focused. Maxwell was often unkind, even to his immediate family. (I found myself wondering repeatedly why his wife never left him. Could be that she was afraid that he'd manage to deny her access to their 9 children. He didn't seem particularly fond of them, but he was fond of winning.)
He died in 1999, while at sea on his yacht Lady Ghislaine. It's not known whether he had a heart attack and fell overboard, committed suicide, or was assassinated by one of the many individuals and organizations he had fallen out with. All the chicanery he'd used to keep his businesses solvent had been exposed (the expression "robbed Peter to pay Paul" would sum it up) and he would shortly have been prosecuted for his financial crimes. Clearly he was under a great deal of stress and had made many enemies, so any of those possible explanations for his death could be true.
The broad strokes of what I've written don't begin to describe the freakish details that circled around so many events in his life - or death. The book does that job well, and I can heartily recommend it for anyone interested in a juicy read about a larger than life personality.
p.s. After finishing this book I had a bit of compassion for Ghislaine Maxwell. Somehow I doubt that she would have ended up as part of Jeffrey Epstein's sordid world had she not been Robert Maxwell's youngest child.
February 10, 2021
I'm not really interested in Robert Maxwell. I don't think it mattered what the subject was this is a new book from John Preston and that I am interested in. I thought A Very English Scandal was superb. A wonderful entertaining read that also filled in gaps in my memory of the era. This, too, is no disappointment and fills in gaps. Hugely entertaining and compelling, I raced through it, but it is just a little short of analysis of the environment of the time and the financial deregulation that was taking place in the 1980s, making all this possible. I remember where I was when I heard of Maxwell's demise and who told me. There was an air of excitement and maybe even relief. He was clearly crooked, even before it all came out. I find it difficult to believe more people didn't know what was going on. It suited them not to see it. And this is the surprise in the story. I started to feel sympathy for Maxwell. Clearly a war hero, brave, mad, even murderous, but on the right side. He ends up in England having fought for this country and makes his way in business. But the establishment doesn't like him. Not because he is a crook, they have no evidence, just that he is the wrong kind of person and they freeze him out. I ended up respecting the way he fought against them and built his company, but it all got out of control. In the end, he was a bully, but with surprising contradictions in his nature. He tried to buy his way out of problems, taking from the pension funds. I believe he thought he would get on top of his debts and pay them back. He was never going to be able to do it and he ruined many people's lives in the process. He was an unusual man, but a product of the English establishment and the international banks who lent him ludicrous sums of money, because they could. In the end, they walked away from him guilt free. But he was out of control and a monster. Preston shows him, good and bad and my surprise was that I didn't find the Maxwell that I despised. Just a large part of him.
March 27, 2024
A very good biography of Maxwell but I can't help feeling that more was needed - I am old enough to remember Maxwell but it shows how far he and the world he knew has faded that it is probably only because of his daughter that he got a biography at this time. I think to understand Maxwell both as a person and as a phenomena you need to know more than this biography provides. In particular about the sort of country the UK was back in the 1960's and 70's, the suffocating restrictions of Labour Britain and the unrestrained deregulation of the Thatcher years. Mr. Preston does not explain, but then no one could at the time or since, how companies like Maxwell Mirror Group Newspapers, which were patently unsound could have their accounts signed off year after year by best accounts with recommendations they financial sound and under trustworthy management could collapse in a shower of bad debts yet not cause anyone to question the system that allowed this to happen. Nor does he explain, nor has anyone since explained how people like Maxwell (or the others who have done it since) could abuse pension funds so easily and pensioners and those paying into pensions have so little control over these monies and so little protection from greedy bastards like Maxsell.
Still John Preston is an excellent writer on modern day corruption and hypocrisy and if you are going to read anything about Maxwell this is probably the best book available.
Still John Preston is an excellent writer on modern day corruption and hypocrisy and if you are going to read anything about Maxwell this is probably the best book available.
April 3, 2021
Jedna z najlepších biografií, aké som čítal. Chlapec z chudobnej židovskej rodiny narodený v Československu utečie ako tínedžer pred holokaustom, kde zomrie celý zvyšok rodiny, je vojnovým hrdinom, prakticky vynájde celý moderný biznis s vedeckou literatúrou, strašne zbohatne, a popri tom sa z neho stane tak odporná ľudská bytosť, že popri ňom jeho hlavný rival Murdoch vyzerá ako skromný altruista. Deň pred tým, ako sa má prevaliť, že spreneveril stovky miliónov libier, ho nájdu plávať mŕtveho v mori.
Vo vedľajších úlohách: Maxwellova dcéra Ghislaine, toho času obžalovaná z dohadzovania detí na sex pre Jeffreyho Epsteina; po prečítaní tohoto sa ani nebudete čudovať, že sa jej to zdalo ako logická voľba povolania.
Vo vedľajších úlohách: Maxwellova dcéra Ghislaine, toho času obžalovaná z dohadzovania detí na sex pre Jeffreyho Epsteina; po prečítaní tohoto sa ani nebudete čudovať, že sa jej to zdalo ako logická voľba povolania.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 19, 2021
At one point, Big Bob is summed up as a musical hall comedian with the smile of Richard III. That is fair comment and a fair indication of Preston's style. Fall does not have the varied tones of A Very English Scandal (the Thorpe affair), but it is a laugh a minute. Robert Maxwell was literally larger than life and Preston hones in on his grotesqueness, his exaggerated eating habits and his obscene squandering of money. It is quite clear that Preston has done his research thoroughly and, in doing so, dug up some marvellous gems. Maxwell was a great raconteur and one of his stories recalls his time spent in hospital with Regan. A total fabrication, the details were lifted from a Hollywood war film in which Regan starred. Ultimately, Maxwell comes across as a mixture of Gargantua, Don Quixote, and a comic James Bond. His connections in the Kremlin and the Knesset were at the top. A fine musical hall entertainment, or as Leonard Sachs would say, on TV, in The Good Old Days: a truly flabbergasting piece of superlative prestidigitation. This is the sort of satirical romp that Trump deserves.
April 9, 2023
I knew Robert Maxwell would be an interesting person to read about, but I didn't think he'd be THAT interesting and that I'd be so invested in his story.
What I enjoyed most was the intelligence ties, it's so easy to see why he'd be (and was) a perfect spy, and I can't help but respect him for all the languages he learned.
There was a line in the book about young Robert Maxwell looking like Clark Gable, and I was like what no way...then I saw the wedding picture and you know what, my bad, he does. Seeing that also helped me believe that he did in fact change his appearance for every new identity, he barely looked like the same person in his final years.
John Preston is a very skilled writer and I'll have to check out what else he's written.
What I enjoyed most was the intelligence ties, it's so easy to see why he'd be (and was) a perfect spy, and I can't help but respect him for all the languages he learned.
There was a line in the book about young Robert Maxwell looking like Clark Gable, and I was like what no way...then I saw the wedding picture and you know what, my bad, he does. Seeing that also helped me believe that he did in fact change his appearance for every new identity, he barely looked like the same person in his final years.
John Preston is a very skilled writer and I'll have to check out what else he's written.
December 11, 2021
Like most people, I suspect, I picked up this book to try and learn more about the background of Ghislaine Maxwell, the partner in crime of notorious sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. Her father, Robert, was in his own way a far more interesting character than any of them. The child of an impoverished Ruthenian shtetl, he became a decorated WWII hero in the British army as his family was wiped out in the Holocaust. With the assistance of British intelligence he later became a millionaire, then a billionaire, building a publishing empire that put him in league with Rupert Murdoch himself. This book lays out strong circumstantial evidence that Maxwell had close ties with not just MI5 but the KGB and Mossad throughout his life. He was a character, a bit like the fictional Logan Roy but with all the rough remnants of his shtetl upbringing just beneath the surface. Maxwell achieved great success but was also stalked by tragedy, both that of the family he lost to the Nazis and the loss of several of his own children to injury and disease. His mysterious death from falling off his yacht is just one of the questions that still surrounds his absolutely strange life.
I didn't learn much about Ghislaine or Epstein from this book, although it does underline how deep the intelligence ties of the Maxwell family went across generations. Robert Maxwell died when Ghislaine was twenty-nine so much of how what led her to become the person she is today was likely unknown to her. Regardless this is a solid read in and of itself, the story of a man's utterly unlikely rise from the wretched of the earth to the heights of elite power.
I didn't learn much about Ghislaine or Epstein from this book, although it does underline how deep the intelligence ties of the Maxwell family went across generations. Robert Maxwell died when Ghislaine was twenty-nine so much of how what led her to become the person she is today was likely unknown to her. Regardless this is a solid read in and of itself, the story of a man's utterly unlikely rise from the wretched of the earth to the heights of elite power.
September 26, 2021
Страхотна биография, написана от автор, който умее да рови между тънките пластове на митоманията, която заобикаля милиардера Максуел през целия му живот.
July 22, 2021
I’m old enough to remember Robert Maxwell, the outsized-in-every-way owner of a publishing empire who died in a mysterious fall from his superyacht. (The vessel was called Lady Ghislaine, for his ninth and youngest child, who is herself now infamous for her association with Jeffrey Epstein and her alleged sex trafficking of minors.) I decided to read this relatively short and anecdote-heavy biography, which was published earlier this year.
It’s impressive that Maxwell, born into poverty in an Orthodox Jewish family in the Ruthenia region of what was then (1923) Czechoslovakia, became a world-famous publishing baron. The trip there is amazing in itself. When the Nazis occupied his home country, Maxwell (who was born Jan Ludvik Hyman Binyamin Hoch) joined the Czechoslovak Army in exile and eventually became an officer in the British Army, decorated for bravery. With his knowledge of multiple languages (some self taught) and his daring, Maxwell for a time was also an agent of British intelligence.
After his service ended, Maxwell got into his first business venture, which was a British publishing partnership to distribute the scientific texts of the German company Springer Verlag. Anybody familiar with academic libraries knows of Springer Verlag’s stellar reputation. But at the end of World War II, its chief told Maxwell he had no practical way of distributing books and asked if Maxwell had any helpful contacts. Learning that academic authors were so happy to be published that they rarely cared about being paid decently, and that Springer Verlag’s titles were reliably purchased by academic institutions and scholars around the world, Maxwell volunteered himself.
Whenever I read a book about a wealthy and powerful man’s downfall, it always seems to me that there is a point where the guy could have stopped empire-building and still been wealthy and successful. That was, in Maxwell’s case, when he’d set up his British publishing company, which he eventually renamed Pergamon Press, to distribute Springer-Verlag titles. With the assistance of an experienced scientific editor, he built Pergamon Press into a major publisher—and he was its 75% owner. If he’d just stuck with that, he’d have had a life far beyond the dreams of his family, most of whom perished in the Holocaust.
But no. Maxwell’s ambitions were overwhelming, he had an insatiable appetite for food and all the trappings of wealth, his ego was immense, his temper extreme, his moral code extremely flexible. He was known to treat people badly, especially employees and members of his family, including his long-suffering wife, and the two sons who worked at his businesses. The only child he doted on was reported Ghislaine.
Maxwell’s body was found within 12 hours of when he was last seen on board. He was in the sea, nude, with his quarters left locked and the key missing. Author John Preston makes a good case for suicide, based on circumstantial evidence and Maxwell’s behavior in the last few days of his life. When he died, the authorities were closing in, about to arrest him for fraud and looting the newspaper pension fund under his control of hundreds of millions of pounds. He’d maneuvered and bamboozled his way out of tight spots before, but there was no getting out of this jam. His empire was going down and so was he.
Though Maxwell is not a very sympathetic character, Preston paints an operatically dramatic picture of his life. Maxwell was tremendously talented and capable of so much, but hugely flawed. (Much of his behavior will remind readers of a certain US politician.) This is an accomplished, well-researched and fascinating biography.
It’s impressive that Maxwell, born into poverty in an Orthodox Jewish family in the Ruthenia region of what was then (1923) Czechoslovakia, became a world-famous publishing baron. The trip there is amazing in itself. When the Nazis occupied his home country, Maxwell (who was born Jan Ludvik Hyman Binyamin Hoch) joined the Czechoslovak Army in exile and eventually became an officer in the British Army, decorated for bravery. With his knowledge of multiple languages (some self taught) and his daring, Maxwell for a time was also an agent of British intelligence.
After his service ended, Maxwell got into his first business venture, which was a British publishing partnership to distribute the scientific texts of the German company Springer Verlag. Anybody familiar with academic libraries knows of Springer Verlag’s stellar reputation. But at the end of World War II, its chief told Maxwell he had no practical way of distributing books and asked if Maxwell had any helpful contacts. Learning that academic authors were so happy to be published that they rarely cared about being paid decently, and that Springer Verlag’s titles were reliably purchased by academic institutions and scholars around the world, Maxwell volunteered himself.
Whenever I read a book about a wealthy and powerful man’s downfall, it always seems to me that there is a point where the guy could have stopped empire-building and still been wealthy and successful. That was, in Maxwell’s case, when he’d set up his British publishing company, which he eventually renamed Pergamon Press, to distribute Springer-Verlag titles. With the assistance of an experienced scientific editor, he built Pergamon Press into a major publisher—and he was its 75% owner. If he’d just stuck with that, he’d have had a life far beyond the dreams of his family, most of whom perished in the Holocaust.
But no. Maxwell’s ambitions were overwhelming, he had an insatiable appetite for food and all the trappings of wealth, his ego was immense, his temper extreme, his moral code extremely flexible. He was known to treat people badly, especially employees and members of his family, including his long-suffering wife, and the two sons who worked at his businesses. The only child he doted on was reported Ghislaine.
Maxwell’s body was found within 12 hours of when he was last seen on board. He was in the sea, nude, with his quarters left locked and the key missing. Author John Preston makes a good case for suicide, based on circumstantial evidence and Maxwell’s behavior in the last few days of his life. When he died, the authorities were closing in, about to arrest him for fraud and looting the newspaper pension fund under his control of hundreds of millions of pounds. He’d maneuvered and bamboozled his way out of tight spots before, but there was no getting out of this jam. His empire was going down and so was he.
Though Maxwell is not a very sympathetic character, Preston paints an operatically dramatic picture of his life. Maxwell was tremendously talented and capable of so much, but hugely flawed. (Much of his behavior will remind readers of a certain US politician.) This is an accomplished, well-researched and fascinating biography.
January 10, 2022
A fascinating biography about the rise and fall of millionaire publisher and one time Member of Parliament Robert Maxwell who robbed his companies' pension funds of millions of pounds. This is a real page turner.
February 8, 2021
Could not put this down. The book tells the incredible life, and bizarre death, of Robert Maxwell, the notorious media mogul, and told superbly well by John Preston.
A definite must-read!
A definite must-read!
February 16, 2021
Hugely readable account of the life of the egomaniac newspaper tycoon. Too many people were complicit in his business activities.
January 15, 2022
My lovely Grandad was a Daily Mirror reader. He would pass on a pile of newspapers to us when we visited my grandparents at least once a week, whereupon my sister and I would read them cover to cover (yes, page 3 and all).
It’s a consequence of this that I have a vivid memory of Robert Maxwell, his death and his demise, which is weird considering I was only 11 when he died. (If you have a voracious reader of a child in the pre-internet age, they’ll literally read anything they can get their hands on.)
When I saw this new biography of the newspaper tycoon (:megalomaniac) was published last year to rave reviews, I was keen to read it. It didn’t disappoint, it was a riveting read and filled in all the gaps, clarifying information that had gone over my head as a child. It won the Costa Biography of the Year 2021.
Robert Maxwell treated the Mirror as his own personal fiefdom, a cash cow that he bled dry, defrauding investors and employees alike on a grand scale, moving money around to pay off debts elsewhere in his vast business empire.
He had a fascinating history that I wasn’t aware of, coming from a very poor Czechoslovak Jewish family, most of whom perished in the Holocaust. The book starts with his inauspicious childhood and takes the reader on quite the ride to his ultimate demise, when he disappeared from a yacht off the coast of Tenerife in 1991.
It’s written in quite a gossipy, pacey, readable style, with short chapters and lots of brilliant quotes and fascinating insights from the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Betty Maxwell (RM’s wife of almost 50 years) and some of his children (though not Ghislaine, his disgraced youngest daughter).
Maxwell was an odious man, a fraud, a charlatan, and you’ll feel disgusted by the excess reading a lot of it, but as with all such characters, you can’t help reading and wondering how they hoodwinked the world. Recommended. 4/5 ⭐️
It’s a consequence of this that I have a vivid memory of Robert Maxwell, his death and his demise, which is weird considering I was only 11 when he died. (If you have a voracious reader of a child in the pre-internet age, they’ll literally read anything they can get their hands on.)
When I saw this new biography of the newspaper tycoon (:megalomaniac) was published last year to rave reviews, I was keen to read it. It didn’t disappoint, it was a riveting read and filled in all the gaps, clarifying information that had gone over my head as a child. It won the Costa Biography of the Year 2021.
Robert Maxwell treated the Mirror as his own personal fiefdom, a cash cow that he bled dry, defrauding investors and employees alike on a grand scale, moving money around to pay off debts elsewhere in his vast business empire.
He had a fascinating history that I wasn’t aware of, coming from a very poor Czechoslovak Jewish family, most of whom perished in the Holocaust. The book starts with his inauspicious childhood and takes the reader on quite the ride to his ultimate demise, when he disappeared from a yacht off the coast of Tenerife in 1991.
It’s written in quite a gossipy, pacey, readable style, with short chapters and lots of brilliant quotes and fascinating insights from the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Betty Maxwell (RM’s wife of almost 50 years) and some of his children (though not Ghislaine, his disgraced youngest daughter).
Maxwell was an odious man, a fraud, a charlatan, and you’ll feel disgusted by the excess reading a lot of it, but as with all such characters, you can’t help reading and wondering how they hoodwinked the world. Recommended. 4/5 ⭐️
March 13, 2021
I used to work opposite the Mirror building, and hence opposite the helipad from which Robert Maxwell took-off having urinated on anyone passing below (a story which I long took to be urban folklore but which this book is able both to confirm and refute). I remember the day he disappeared vividly: local watering holes like The White Hart full of gossiping hacks, alarmed and excited in equal measure.
I was thus delighted to get this as a birthday gift and immediately riveted by the story therein, which outmatches that of any fiction writer or film maker. I knew about Maxwell from his role in Pergamon Press and his much less successful career in newspapers, and I knew that he came from the humblest of origins. I didn't know about his spectacular (and ruthless) exploits in the war and his background in espionage. And whilst I had heard stories of hubris and bullying little could prepare me for the excesses of indulgence and cruelty which marked his later life, and reminded me of nothing so much as later Roman emperor. At times it reads a bit like tabloid gossip, but it is unputdownable.
I was thus delighted to get this as a birthday gift and immediately riveted by the story therein, which outmatches that of any fiction writer or film maker. I knew about Maxwell from his role in Pergamon Press and his much less successful career in newspapers, and I knew that he came from the humblest of origins. I didn't know about his spectacular (and ruthless) exploits in the war and his background in espionage. And whilst I had heard stories of hubris and bullying little could prepare me for the excesses of indulgence and cruelty which marked his later life, and reminded me of nothing so much as later Roman emperor. At times it reads a bit like tabloid gossip, but it is unputdownable.
February 7, 2021
Comprehensive, but
I knew already that Maxwell was a world class swindler, having met him over business in the 1960s, but this comprehensive, attractively written, biography filled in much detail.
My ‘but’ is to do with his end. There was more rumour to explore, or to set down, than Fall embraces. I heard some from his private pilot. There was the matter of the yacht’s Master and crew on the fateful voyage. How they came to be there? Their backgrounds?
Of course John Preston could not explore every wild straw in the wind, but there is something unsatisfactory about his examination of Maxwell’s last voyage. The post mortems and burial are covered in admirable detail, but who (other than himself) heaved Maxwell’s massive bulk overboard? Where in the yacht was the guardrail hazardously low? Why, in such a grand gin palace, with an obese owner who apparently liked to pee overboard, was no lifebuoy sentry on duty? Surely more speculation could have been indulged?
Despite my ‘but’ this an admirably researched biography and worth its Kindle price.
I knew already that Maxwell was a world class swindler, having met him over business in the 1960s, but this comprehensive, attractively written, biography filled in much detail.
My ‘but’ is to do with his end. There was more rumour to explore, or to set down, than Fall embraces. I heard some from his private pilot. There was the matter of the yacht’s Master and crew on the fateful voyage. How they came to be there? Their backgrounds?
Of course John Preston could not explore every wild straw in the wind, but there is something unsatisfactory about his examination of Maxwell’s last voyage. The post mortems and burial are covered in admirable detail, but who (other than himself) heaved Maxwell’s massive bulk overboard? Where in the yacht was the guardrail hazardously low? Why, in such a grand gin palace, with an obese owner who apparently liked to pee overboard, was no lifebuoy sentry on duty? Surely more speculation could have been indulged?
Despite my ‘but’ this an admirably researched biography and worth its Kindle price.
December 5, 2020
What a life! Robert Maxwell's biography by John Preston, author of "A Very English Scandal", tells an even more bizarre story than his previous book. Czech peasant Jew turned multimillionaire media mogul was a larger-than-life figure and reading about him was a fascinating experience. I was not familiar with most of the events described, so I've opened my eyes wider and wider. The writing is engaging and fast-paced, so it is a perfect choice for long winter nights.
Thanks to the publisher, Harper, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
Thanks to the publisher, Harper, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
November 2, 2023
- Maxwell jumped – says Rupert Murdoch, as he turns 90. By Peter McKay: Rupert Murdoch turns 90 on March 11th. In the new biography of Robert Maxwell, Murdoch is sure the crook, in massive debt, killed himself. By Peter McKay
Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston
May 11, 2021
“Well, of course I’m Conservative, but I’m not a member of the Establishment, so I’ve got to become Labour.”
So said Maxwell about his political career. When he was appointed the chairman of the House of Commons Catering Committee, after the catering department made a £33,000 loss in the previous tax year, Maxwell boasted that he would turn it into a £20,000 profit in 1968. He streamlined the operation (sacking staff, cutting down options, cheaper produce). After some research was done this figure was revised to a profit of £1,787, but then after auditing this was revised again to a £3,400 loss. This was only a tiny taste of what was to come down the line for Maxwell and those unfortunate enough to be drawn into his orbit.
This story tracks his dirt poor origins in 1920s Ruthenia in rural Czechoslovakia, and follows a familiar trajectory of wheeling and dealing his way to riches and notoriety in between some lying, cheating, stealing and possible war crimes. Tragedy was never too far away from him or his family, he lost two siblings to childhood illness and lost his mum and more siblings at Auschwitz. He lost two of his nine kids before they reached adulthood and of course as I type this his youngest daughter languishes in some cell somewhere in solitary confinement in New York, for her alleged role in some seriously sinister crimes.
Maxwell was a hideous and ridiculous man, stomping around like a cantankerous, bloated Dracula. He was a cruel and manipulative bully, and his dreadful behaviour extended to his own family and children, with devastating results. He died apparently owing around £763 million. That’s a fair bit of money. But what about all those people who willingly helped Maxwell and profited along with him. It simply wasn’t possible to commit theft on such a grand scale without the help of other greedy, powerful and morally bankrupt people, which included, but was not limited to, the Liechtenstein banks, American banks and various other investment bankers and many accountants. There were also those who made it possible for him to bug his own staff and their phones. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that Maxwell was a sociopath, which is an all too common phenomenon in the leaders of men, the system is set up to attract, reward and celebrate their behaviour.
We see the many ways in which Maxwell like many outlandish egomaniacs, veers between wallowing in self-pity and victimhood when something goes against them, then as soon as things are looking up they are proclaiming to the world how great they think they are when they pull of another elaborate scam. It’s an exhausting way to live your life,
This book reminds us that within the capitalist system it doesn’t matter how big you fail or how many times you fail or go bankrupt, as long as you have a big enough ego and convince enough greedy or naïve people to give you what you want with lies, charm and self-promotion, then you can not only bounce back but you can become even more “successful”. Just ask Richard Branson and Donald Trump.
March 16, 2022
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to read a book about the awful Robert Maxwell, but I’m a big fan of John Preston’s work so I had to give this a go. It doesn’t disappoint. Preston’s novelettish style renders many of the set pieces gripping. He tries very hard to give the reader a balanced picture of Maxwell and it’s undoubtedly true that he had a very tough childhood, but it doesn’t really forgive his subsequent monstrous behaviour. The mystery is how his long-suffering wife, Betty, stuck by him for so long. In addition, anybody looking for an explanation of Ghislaine Maxwell’s behaviour will find it here.
February 7, 2021
Deserves to make a big splash.
October 13, 2022
4.5 stars.
You may not know who Robert Maxwell is, particularly if you are an American Millennial like myself. However, you likely do know who his youngest daughter is...Ghislaine Maxwell.
This book, about media and print tycoon Robert Maxwell was truly fascinating stuff. From his birth into a poor family in what was then Czechoslovakia, to losing most of his family in the Holocaust, to being the rival of Rupert Murdoch; it's truly wild. Maxwell is no hero but his life and his mysterious death at sea (his yacht was called the Lady Ghislaine) propel this as incredibly readable non-fiction.
You may not know who Robert Maxwell is, particularly if you are an American Millennial like myself. However, you likely do know who his youngest daughter is...Ghislaine Maxwell.
This book, about media and print tycoon Robert Maxwell was truly fascinating stuff. From his birth into a poor family in what was then Czechoslovakia, to losing most of his family in the Holocaust, to being the rival of Rupert Murdoch; it's truly wild. Maxwell is no hero but his life and his mysterious death at sea (his yacht was called the Lady Ghislaine) propel this as incredibly readable non-fiction.
April 5, 2021
Journalist John Preston's Fall is an intriguing tale about the life and death of controversial media mogul Robert Maxwell. This is warts and all, following Maxwell's flight from war-torn Czechoslovakia, where most of his Jewish family is murdered by the Nazis, while he goes on to fight for the British army and receives an award for bravery. Indeed, none of this man's story is black and white and Preston does a great job of filling in the shades of grey, having interviewed ex-employees and even his wife Betty in what is an unrelenting attempt to get at the essence of the man.
While marvelling at his rise from virtually nothing, to becoming one of the world's most renowned publishers, however, the author regales us with anecdotes of Maxwell's bullying and his downright greed. His rise may have been heroic but Preston's tale is at its best when recounting the man's "fall". This may have been literally as Maxwell infamously died when he was thought to have fallen off the back of his yacht as his years of fraudulent activity - culminating in the theft of millions of pounds from his own newspaper's pension fund - were about to come to light. Did he fall or was he pushed? Preston seems to pin Maxwell's death on suicide in this illuminating book that chronicles the inglorious descent of a man that flew too close to the sun.
While marvelling at his rise from virtually nothing, to becoming one of the world's most renowned publishers, however, the author regales us with anecdotes of Maxwell's bullying and his downright greed. His rise may have been heroic but Preston's tale is at its best when recounting the man's "fall". This may have been literally as Maxwell infamously died when he was thought to have fallen off the back of his yacht as his years of fraudulent activity - culminating in the theft of millions of pounds from his own newspaper's pension fund - were about to come to light. Did he fall or was he pushed? Preston seems to pin Maxwell's death on suicide in this illuminating book that chronicles the inglorious descent of a man that flew too close to the sun.
April 18, 2021
Although not really presenting any new information, this well written account of the life and times of "Captain Bob" offers a new younger audience who did not experience Maxwell in his 'prime' a fascinating recount of his extraordinary life. There has been renewed interest in Maxwell given his daughter Ghislane's central role in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. A life-long 'shape-shifting' grifter and shady business 'tycoon', Maxwell was a cartoonish monster both at work and at home. Ultimately as this book cogently outlines, Maxwell was undone by his own hubris, reckless investments and fraudulent business practices, not the least deplorable of which was his raiding of employee pension funds which he treated as his own private piggy-banks as his businesses floundered and his personal lifestyle spending spiralled out of control. The marshalling of evidence in this book reinforces the suspicion that Maxwell may well have taken his own life given that his duplicitous financial manovures were about to be exposed with his affairs under scrutiny by the authorities and the police about to move in on him. The anticipation of the public humiliation and excoriation such exposure would prompt was probably much too much to bear for the Trumpesque ego (i.e. Massive + Fragile) of Maxwell.
March 29, 2021
This stellar book by John Preston is all about how NOT TO BE Robert Maxwell - a well known media baron of the world.
From the start, the book, grips, thrills & drives YOU to a point of despair and exasperation. This is why I recommend it:
- A minute dissection of media entrepreneurship & what it takes to build a media biz that impacts the world.
- A deep dive into the minds of a businessman who is always in warp speed mode, trying to compete only with himself.
- A WAKE-UP CALL if you may. The book reveals how the darkest despairs, disappointments, unresolved emotional wounds & scars take over the mind & drive a man to do things that would be only harmful in the long run.
- The PRICE (mental, health, family, et al) of creating conglomerates & then spinning like a top trying to feed that beast. Is it worth it, you will ask?
- How insights, arbitrage & opportunities exist in front of all of us - except that a few take advantage!
- The killer mentality of the ponzi mind. How desperation can make anyone lost their sense & sensibility.
- A deep read to introspect & study the pitfalls of unbridled ambition.
Read this book and say a thank you prayer for all the grace in your life.
May you never have to live (and die) like Robert Maxwell :(
From the start, the book, grips, thrills & drives YOU to a point of despair and exasperation. This is why I recommend it:
- A minute dissection of media entrepreneurship & what it takes to build a media biz that impacts the world.
- A deep dive into the minds of a businessman who is always in warp speed mode, trying to compete only with himself.
- A WAKE-UP CALL if you may. The book reveals how the darkest despairs, disappointments, unresolved emotional wounds & scars take over the mind & drive a man to do things that would be only harmful in the long run.
- The PRICE (mental, health, family, et al) of creating conglomerates & then spinning like a top trying to feed that beast. Is it worth it, you will ask?
- How insights, arbitrage & opportunities exist in front of all of us - except that a few take advantage!
- The killer mentality of the ponzi mind. How desperation can make anyone lost their sense & sensibility.
- A deep read to introspect & study the pitfalls of unbridled ambition.
Read this book and say a thank you prayer for all the grace in your life.
May you never have to live (and die) like Robert Maxwell :(
February 15, 2021
I remember following with fascination the dramatic death of Robert Maxwell and his empire's spectacular fall in the early 90'ties. Almost thirty years later, the narrative told by John Preston is practically even more fascinating. He has written a tightly paced book about ambition, hubris, narcissism, greed, power, and intrigue (does it sound familiar Mr. Trump?). Although Preston writes much about the appalling way he treated his wife and children (four boys and three girls), I wish (my only regret) Preston had written more about the relationship with his favourite daughter Ghislaine Maxwell (in the light of the pending trial against her for enticement of minors, sex trafficking of children, and perjury).
February 27, 2021
I enjoyed Preston's last book about Jeremy Thorpe, so had high hopes for this one and it didn't disappoint. Here Preston takes on the life of the controversial Robert Maxwell from seeing his family wiped out in a concentration camp, to burying two young children, to becoming wealthy and raiding pension funds and his mysterious death everything is covered. Preston leaves us to form our own opinion on Maxwell and love or loathe him he was certainly a fascinating figure. Excellent read.
June 16, 2021
This moves along a good pace - I read it in less than a week - and is well written. The early days of Maxwell - his poor childhood, Holocaust and loss of his family - almost elicit some sympathy for an unlikeable character. For an in-depth look of Maxwell’s finances and how his empire teetered on credit and pension money, it doesn’t compare to Tom Bower’s lengthier book. But it’s a good overview and entry into the Maxwell story. I’d recommend.
February 14, 2021
Reading this book was a eye opening experience I remember the mirror lottery and spot the ball and knew a little about the pension funds I just did not know how bad this man was a must read book helps understand the trouble his daughter is in now days I thought I knew a fair bit about maxwells history but turns out I knew very little well written book 10/10
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