Bully, liar, tyrant, fantasist, thief on a monumental scale – just ask the Mirror pensioners – and narcissist of an even greater magnitude, Robert Maxwell was a villain for whom the term “disgraced newspaper tycoon” seems pitifully small. Yet as former Evening Standard and Telegraph journalist John Preston’s new book Fall: The Mystery Of Robert Maxwell shows, the horror of Maxwell’s early life explains (if not excuses) the monster he became. How did Maxwell fool, and then fleece, the publishing world?

“If you worked in Fleet Street in the 80s there was no escaping Maxwell…”
“You have to seen Maxwell through the prism of what happened to his family in the Holocaust. There was enormous rage and guilt there.”
“Robert Maxwell was gripped by a simultaneous desire to sit at the top table, and also to kill everyone else at that top table.”
“Maxwell was both ridiculed and feared, often by the same people.”

Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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Weekend extra: ROBERT MAXWELL’s cash fro...