Will miss tonights programme (am away this weekend as I will be at a wedding) but am looking forward to the chance of catching a repeat. One of the most charismatic and intelligent men of his time, who used his formidable talents to get where he was from almost nothing and yet he constantly abused those rare gifts. When my Dad worked in London he had the misfortune to meet Maxwell and has since said that there were three famous men who he met through his work who he found to be an unpleasant bully and Maxwell was one of them.
A man who fascinated and angered and disgusted us in turn.
BTW If you ever come across Tom Bower's bio of him, I recommend it.
2 comments:
The best anecdote I heard about Maxwell was from an old reporter. He worked for M in London in the 80s and everyone feared him. M got into a lift in his building with this reporter and a 16yr old kid who was chewing gum very loudly. M asked the kid to stop three times and the kid continued. M got out his wallet, grabbed £500 and said to the kid "Go on, take it, get out of my building and never come back to work here again." The kid took the money and M got out at the next stop. The reporter asked the kid why he didn't fear M and why he was smiling. The kid said "I'm only here visiting my dad who works on the ninth floor and I've just made 500 quid." Priceless.
Have heard a similar story, only the person was smoking whilst checking some cable lines and then said "BTW I work for British Telecom!"
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