Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell

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Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston: Ep 4 - Opulence and Debt

Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston

Ep 4 - Opulence and Debt

BBC Radio 4 - Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston, Ep 4 - Opulence and Debt

In John Preston’s biography Maxwell’s success is uncontested but cracks will soon appear

Henry Goodman reads from John Preston’s gripping biography. Today, Maxwell’s success is uncontested but cracks are soon to appear.

Henry Goodman reads from John Preston’s compelling biography. Today, Maxwell’s success is uncontested, it’s the 1980s and the age of flash. But opulent parties and champagne business launches mask the cracks appearing in his empire’s finances.

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 and to explain why underneath this apparent model of society lay an amoral and bloated wreck.

The Reader is Henry Goodman
The Abridger is Richard Hamilton
The Producer is Elizabeth Allard

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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Henry Goodman reads John Preston's jaw-dropping biography of the notorious business tycoon

Book of the Week. Henry Goodman reads this jaw-dropping life story of the notorious business tycoon and newspaper owner, Robert Maxwell, from birth to his mysterious death at sea.

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Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston

Ep 4 - Opulence and Debt

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