Fall: The Mysterious Life and Death of Robert Maxwell, Britain's Most Notorious Media Baron

In February 1991, media mogul Robert Maxwell sailed into New York Harbor on his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, to purchase the struggling Daily News. He received a hero's welcome—taxi drivers stopped to shake his hand, children asked for autographs, and restaurant patrons gave him a standing ovation. Ten months later, Maxwell disappeared from that same yacht in the middle of the night and was found dead in the water. John Preston's biography traces Maxwell's rise and fall across his lifetime, from his Jewish childhood in occupied Eastern Europe through failed political ambitions in the 1960s marked by accusations of financial misconduct, to his eventual resurrection as a media mogul. Preston examines Maxwell's intense rivalry with Rupert Murdoch, a competition that damaged Maxwell financially and contributed to his downfall. The book also addresses Maxwell's family legacy, including his daughter Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell's death remains unexplained: did he suffer a heart attack and fall overboard, take his own life, or was he murdered—possibly by Mossad or the KGB? Preston explores how Maxwell, despite his wealth and power, could not escape the forces that shaped him from his earliest years.