The Real Deal: The Autobiography of Britain’s Most Controversial Media Mogul

Richard Desmond

Jun 2015 · Random House

About this ebook

From the age of five, when he helped his deaf father negotiate advertising contracts, Richard Desmond has always had an eye for business. In The Real Deal he offers a no-holds-barred account of an extraordinary career that has taken him from cloakroom attendant at a north London club to billionaire media owner. En route he tells of his early life as a rock and roll drummer, his first steps in the world of magazine publishing as a purveyor of leisure and top-shelf titles, and finally, after decades of paying his dues building smaller brands, his arrival in the big league with the launch of OK! magazine and the acquisition of Express Newspapers, his purchase and sale of Channel 5, and his £80 million investment in the Health Lottery, combining business innovation with help for good causes.

Along the way, he imparts many of the secrets of his astounding success, as well as giving his forthright opinion (and he always has one) on such diverse subjects as politicians, religion, and the similarities between being a rock and roll drummer and running a business – as well as his views on a cast of characters ranging from Alan Sugar to Victoria Beckham and from Simon Cowell to Jennifer Aniston.

Often controversial, frequently revelatory, always entertaining, The Real Deal is the brilliantly frank account of a life spent at the sharp end.

About the author

Richard Desmond is the founder and owner of Northern & Shell Plc, publishers of the Express Newspapers group as well as the celebrity magazines OK!, New! and Star. He is also the drummer for The RD Crusaders, a rock supergroup formed with The Who's Roger Daltrey, whose charity concerts have raised some £15 million. He lives in north London with his wife, Joy, and has three children: adult son Robert who is a software developer and leading Holocaust memorial activist, daughter Angel, 4; and son Valentine, who was born in January 2015. He is currently working on a major new regeneration project in London's Docklands.