Ghislaine Maxwell: Decline and Fall of Manhattan’s Most Famous Socialite

by Nigel Cawthorne

On 2 July 2020, multi-millionaire Ghislaine Maxwell - Jeffrey Epstein’s former lover and a close friend of Prince Andrew’s and ex-President Donald Trump’s - was arrested in new Hampshire on charges relating to the serial abuse of underage girls by the billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. After a year-long hunt for her by lawyers and the world media and, as it turned out, the FBI, she became one of the most recognisable fugitives around the world. Who was she and how did she fall so far from grace? How did she amass her fortune of over 30 million after being next to penniless following the death of her father? This is the first investigation based on new sources that have become available since her arrest.

Genres: Biography, True Crime, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

224 pages, Paperback

Published September 21, 2021

About the author

Nigel Cawthorne is an Anglo-American writer of fiction and non-fiction, and an editor. He has written more than 80 books on a wide range of subjects and has contributed to The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph Daily Mail and The New York Times. He has appeared on television and BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Many of Nigel Cawthorne's books are compilations of popular history, without footnotes, references or bibliographies. His own web site refers to a description of his home as a "book-writing factory" and says, "More than half my books were commissioned by publishers and packagers for a flat fee or for a for a reduced royalty".

One of his most notable works was Taking Back My Name, an autobiography of Ike Turner, with whom he spent a number of weeks working with him on, taking up residence in Turner's house. The book caused much controversy, resulting in court cases for three years following its release.

Cawthorne currently lives in Bloomsbury, London with his girlfriend and son, Colin (born 1982).

Reviews

[Liv · Rating 1 out of 5]

✰ 1 ✰

completely baffled that this ever got published. for one, the typos, grammar, bad formatting etc make it difficult for even one sentence to be readable. this needed to be proof read about ten more times. structurally, this is one of the worst books i've ever read. it had no structure. this review has a better structure. the repetitiveness was exhausting. also this is a book about ghislaine maxwell that is really just about prince andrew. of course, he is a scummy man and he needs to be held accountable but it's obvious cawthorne just lifted lines from his previous book. it ALWAYS went back to prince andrew. i picked this up on a whim because i felt in the media maxwell had escaped accountability and wanted to know more about her involvement in the epstein case, but unfortunately i can't take anything nigel cawthorne has written about in this book seriously.

[Scott Shaw · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst books I've ever read, from its juvenile gossip rag style, to grammatical and formatting errors this is a book to be avoided.

[Annie Booker · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't actually finish because the plethora of spelling and grammatical errors drove me to quit. Mr Cawthorne needs to employ a decent editor or at the very least use a spellchecker.

[Lara Pearce-Tripp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was an interesting read. Looking forward to reading the Tom Bower books on her father.

[denis watkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave a riveting description of the idle rich, living in luxury and indulging their sick sexual lusts. It also made clear that justice is not applied to all. Ghislaine Maxwell deserved her punishment. However, Prince Andrew, a none too bright royal never appeared in court and continues to live is some style and at public expense.

[SJG · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good book

Seems to be well researched and a good read. It doesn't just focus on the Epstein criminal sex trafficking stuff (except at the end) but gives a full account of Ghislaine Maxwell's life, explaining who she is and how she ended up doing the things she did.

[Smitha Parameswaran · Rating 2 out of 5]

Truly appalling the length to which people go to satisfy their cravings. I wanted to know what was it that led such an affluent person, moving among the most famous people in the world to do this. Makes us wary of trusting anyone.

[Alex Murray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good timeline of events but the grammar, punctuation in addition to the lack or misplace of words made this hard to read in places. I felt this ruined the flow and got annoying after happening repeatedly.

[Dee Marks · Rating 3 out of 5]

awful editing

This is actually a very interesting book but it’s awful editing practically destroys it. Hard to read, annoyingly words are left out and some sentences made no sense.
Bit of an insult to the purchaser.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

not bad, learned a lot of new info

I’m on a reading binge about these cases in particular, and am reading all of the information I can find. This was a good one, but the ending could’ve been better written.

[Ruth Hosford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m intrigued that no one has commented on the book. Is it because of all the grammatical errors or the quality of the content?

[Jan Pallister · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of pages missing from this book.

Inconveniently, so many pages missing.
Had to try to imagine the missing info.
Lots of good reading though, just marred by some of it missing.

[YeatesJM La Vie en Prose · Rating 2 out of 5]

NAPR

[KATHRYN WOOD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as I thought it would be

It just went on and on. I got fed up with it. I will never GWT my time back ever.

[Tameika Nicholls · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, but they were various errors in structure and grammar, as well as repetition and spelling mistakes. Seeing so many errors in editing made me question the information in the book.

[Ned Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

A small book and just 207 pages with plenty of photographs. Thankfully.
There is quite a collection of details but the book was ruined by an apparent lack of the regular checks. It really does look like a case of manuscript today and on the book sellers shelf tomorrow.
The book paints a poor picture of Robert Maxwell, a Czechoslovakian refugee whose parents and two siblings died in a concentration camp. He is reported as a bully and in total control of his family. Despite her upbringing, Ghislaine admired and respected him. The author did not blame Ghislaine's adult behaviour on her upbringing.
We can only wonder why she behaved in such a manner, but there is little doubt she is an extremely talented manipulator, this she proved on all levels of society.

[Shayna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ll give it a 2.5. There were so many unfinished sentences, typos, ramblings & repetitive. I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over without gaining any actual information about her life and the crime she took part in.

There are not much positive things to say about this book, but I highly think it’s because of the author and the lack of structure.

[Larissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s interesting to get the background on who she is and her family. I look forward to reading an updated book a few years down the line, when she’s only a memory and the girls that suffered are the victors

[Julie O'Carrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Rich have no empathy for Poor

We live in a judgemental world .
With an unforgiving society.

Sadly , these girls will never be children again .

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting information sure but this book needs a really good edit. The sheer amount of errors (typos, formatting, grammatical, spelling, etc.) throughout it is woeful.

[Meryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the worst written book I have ever read…