cover image Maxwell: The Rise and Fall of Robert Maxwell and His Empire

Maxwell: The Rise and Fall of Robert Maxwell and His Empire

Roy Greenslade. Carol Publishing Corporation, $19.95 (376pp) ISBN 978-1-55972-123-3

In this juicy, relentlessly unflattering, at times vindictive portrait of Robert Maxwell, who died mysteriously last November, Greenslade strips away the facade of the boastful press baron to portray a panic-stricken con man who massively plundered his public companies and his employees' pension funds in an effort to save his debt-ridden empire. Greenslade was editor of London's Maxwell-owned Daily Mirror until March 1991, when he left because of the tycoon's ``gross editorial interference.'' The Maxwell who swaggers through these acid pages is a shameless self-promoter, a windbag politician during his six years in Parliament, an authoritarian boss given to violent mood swings and a brutal, tyrannical father to his seven children. His marriage was such ``a sham'' that he and his wife Betty lived apart despite a public show of unity, Greenslade reports. He also details Maxwell's misuse of company funds and, with support from a pathologist's report, argues that the press lord probably committed suicide because he could not face the public disgrace of ``being revealed as a cheat and a thief.'' Photos. (Sept.)