This is not only an authorised but a commissioned biography. Felix Dennis, the tiny, depraved, manipulative media mogul, was hardly going to let a free hand choose the adjectives that defined him. The author recalls his initial fright at being contacted: “Of course I’d be delighted to speak to Felix,” I said, my voice an octave higher than normal.’
And so Fergus Byrne, of Dorset’s Marshland Vale magazine, was Dennis’s chosen one, flown to Mustique so they could sit in his paradisal grounds together, wondering at Dennis’s publishing achievements (from MacUser to lads’ mag Maxim), discussing his business technique (‘“I fucking hate accountants,” he shouted’) and remembering the laughs along the way, such as the ‘hysterical’ bitchfight between his Korean ‘companion’ and his Chinese girlfriend — on Christmas Day, no less!
This is a repellent portrait of an unrepentant individual.
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