Publisher, politician, financier, industrialist, printer and sportsman, Robert Maxwell is a man who has provoked loyalty and loathing as well fascination from those who have witnessed his courage, energy, ambition and business acumen. In writing his biography the author has interviewed over 350 people across the world who have known Maxwell - as a young boy brought up as an orthodox Jew; in the Czech and British armies during the Second World War; in post-war Berlin and in the City of London; in Westminster where he hoped to become a senior minister in Harold Wilson's government; and in New York where his Czech relations live.