Shades of Black: Conrad Black - His Rise and Fall

by Richard Siklos

At the turn of the new millennium, Conrad Black was living the dream he had imagined for his entire life: he was married to a beautiful, intelligent woman who shared his political outlook and love of a lavish lifestyle; a Gulfstream jet ferried the couple among palatial homes in London, Toronto, Palm Beach, and New York; and he owned, among many other newspapers, the Daily Telegraph in London, England, the Jerusalem Post, and the Chicago Sun-Times. He would soon be granted a peerage and a seat in Britain’s House of Lords, his parties and company boards were packed with luminaries, and he was planning to write a biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that would build his stature and presence in the United States, the country he worshipped.

What a difference four years make. Today, Conrad Black’s career and reputation are in free fall. He has been kicked out of Hollinger International, his main U.S. company, by its board of directors, and his prize possession, the Daily Telegraph, has been sold out from under him. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI are investigating, and lawsuits are flying in every direction. In this definitive biography of the most famous Canadian businessperson of this generation, Richard Siklos delivers a riveting account of Black’s life and, for the first time, the inside story of his humiliating downfall, drawing on scores of new interviews conducted in four countries and on newly disclosed materials.

It is the story Siklos started to write in the 1995 edition of his bestselling biography of Conrad Black, Shades of Black, and now tells in full, gripping detail in this completely revised, updated, and vastly expanded edition, now subtitled Conrad Black – His Rise and Fall.

528 pages, Hardcover

Published November 9, 2004

About the author

Richard Siklos is an accomplished journalist who lives outside New York City with his family.

Reviews

[Claris · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

It reads like a grocery list. It's pedantic and dry; like its subject.
Tom Bower's "Conrad and Lady Black" is infinitely better. It crackles with energy, and schadenfreude.

[Mike Steinborn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read about a man that has since become a felon in the USA, convicted of fraud. This fact, however, does not diminish the value of reading about his life up to the point where he was still a rising star.