Billionaire: The Life and Times of Sir James Goldsmith [Hardcover]

Ivan Fallon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1992

The entertaining saga of one of the world's wealthiest men describes his lifestyle at his sixteen-thousand-acre estate along the Mexican coast and tells how his shrewd business sense saved his investments from the crash of 1987 and the Persian Gulf crisis.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although a British peer, 58-year-old James Goldsmith is the son of a German Jew and a Frenchwoman from a peasant family. His meteoric rise from an Eton dropout, compulsive gambler and small businessman in his 20s to a billionaire multinational corporate raider by his 40s is entertainingly detailed by British journalist Fallon ( The Brothers: The Rise of Saatchi & Saatchi ). The author, who had Goldsmith's cooperation, is sympathetic to his subject but adequately covers the controversial aspects of his life. Goldsmith's practice of maintaining several concurrent households with various wives and mistresses and children has caused considerable scandal. He is also well known as an arch conservative, a fervent anti-communist and a hater of the press. However, his reputation as a greed-driven takeover addict has been muted recently by his passionate espousal of ecological causes. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Goldsmith is best known in America for predicting and profiting from the stock market crash of 1987. He also has a reputation as a risk-taking, aggressive corporate raider who in the 1980s went after companies like Grand Union and Goodyear. Less known is that Goldsmith's ancestors, who include the Rothschilds, rose from the Frankfurt ghettos to become wealthy and prominent international entrepreneurs. Goldsmith himself has had multiple marriages, several children, and unfathomable amounts of wealth; having resided at times in England, France, and America, he now lives on the coast of Mexico in the largest known house in the world. Fallon, the deputy editor of the Sunday Times of London who has authored The Brothers: The Rise of Saatchi & Saatchi ( LJ 9/15/89) and coauthored with James Srodes Dream Maker: The Rise and Fall of John Z. DeLorean ( LJ 10/15/83), has gotten all these details right. Sadly, a life so rich with material should make for a more compelling story. This work, though copiously informative, comes off dry and lumbering. Recommended only for collections of business-oriented biographies.
- David Nudo, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 500 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T) (March 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316273864
• ISBN-13: 978-0316273862
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,179,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare biography of a great yet controverisal businessman, June 25, 2008

By 

Liber Sosius (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Billionaire: The Life and Times of Sir James Goldsmith (Hardcover)

Ivan Fallon has done a great job in tracing the life of the now late Sir James Goldsmith - from the Goldschmidt family's Jewish Frankfurt roots to their position amongst the ennobled members of the House of Lords. At one time James, the former 'enfant terrible' of the French business world was one of the wealthiest men in the world. Apart from his business interests Goldsmith's life was truly unique, spanning the effects of World War II, the dying embers of French and English aristocracy and his charge into the go-go eighties as an rambuntious takeover entrepreneur. Mr. Goldsmith will forever be remembered as the man of many eccentricities and conflicting personalities - the man who had multiple family arrangements, a debonaire who raided American companies, a tireless self-promoter who despised media while owning newspapers, and a conservative turned conservationist in his later life. Sir James exhibited undeniable charisma, purpose and self-belief in his life and this essence has been expressed well by Fallon. A great buy despite the price - as a quote on the inside sleave states, one can learn business not by studying textbooks but by reading business biographies, and this has to be one of the best.