2. Early Business Dealings

Robert Maxwell’s shape-shifting youth is marked by heroism, love and a murky start in business.

Eye-watering biography about the notorious tycoon written by John Preston.

The life story of the larger-than- life newspaper owner Robert Maxwell, takes us from his birth to his mysterious death at sea.

Maxwell remains an enigma. He was a hugely successful businessman who came from humble beginnings as an Orthodox Jew in Czechoslovakia, and whose father sold animal skins for a living.

Maxwell became a British war-hero, decorated for his heroism, then a Labour MP, all the while amassing a huge fortune as the owner of publishing and newspaper businesses.

But when he fell from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, in the middle of the night in 1991, another story was revealed - of debts and unscrupulous dealings.

No-one had ever fallen so far and so quickly.

John Preston's gripping biography sets out to give the definitive account of Robert Maxwell's rise and fall.

Underneath this apparent model of society lay an amoral and bloated wreck.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton.

Read by Henry Goodman.

Producer: Elizabeth Allard.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2021.