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Sir Alan Sugar: The Biography
From a humble background, growing up in an East London council flat, Sir Alan Sugar has become a business success story and television sensation, amassing a net worth of £830 million. Charlie Burden traces his rags-to-riches story from a childhood boiling beetroots for the local grocery store to his knighthood and seat at the table of power. His company Amstrad went public in 1980, setting him on the road to riches with a string of successful businesses. In the 1990s, Sir Alan became chairman of Tottenham Hotspur and he has also become famous for his generous nature, which has seen him support Great Ormond Street Hospital, the Jewish Care charity and he has played a key part in the resurrection of the Hackney Empire.
288 pages, Paperback
First published August 2, 2010
2 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Chas Newkey-Burden
45 books23 followersChas Newkey-Burden is a British journalist and author. His books include The Reduced History of Britain, Great Email Disasters and Not In My Name: A Compendium Of Modern Hypocrisy (co-written with Julie Burchill). He has also written unauthorised biographies of Simon Cowell, Paris Hilton, Amy Winehouse, Alexandra Burke and six official publications for Arsenal football club.
He has written for publications including The Guardian, Four Four Two, Total Football, Time Out, Attitude and The Big Issue; and internet sites including Ynetnews, The First Post and Guardian Blogs. A former Contributing Editor to Loaded magazine and former editor of the football website icons.com, where he was also Dennis Bergkamp's official biographer. Interviewees include David Beckham, Ricky Gervais, Frank Lampard, Rachel Stevens and James Bourne.
Newkey-Burden has discussed his books, football news and the Middle East on TV and radio shows including Sky News, CNN, BBC Breakfast News, The Today Programme on Radio 4, Five Live Breakfast, TalkSport, Capital Gold and BBC Radio London. He was featured on the BBC 2 documentary Cold War Kids, the Sky One show Celebrities On Heat and The Biography Channel and Fuse Television's documentaries on Amy Winehouse.
Newkey-Burden has a blog, entitled OyVaGoy, in which he describes himself as 'philosemitic' and posts opinions firmly in support of the state of Israel, and critical of those he perceives as being against Israel.
In July 2008, the British satirical magazine Private Eye reported that Newkey-Burden had posted positive reviews of his own books on the Amazon.co.uk online bookstore.
He has written for publications including The Guardian, Four Four Two, Total Football, Time Out, Attitude and The Big Issue; and internet sites including Ynetnews, The First Post and Guardian Blogs. A former Contributing Editor to Loaded magazine and former editor of the football website icons.com, where he was also Dennis Bergkamp's official biographer. Interviewees include David Beckham, Ricky Gervais, Frank Lampard, Rachel Stevens and James Bourne.
Newkey-Burden has discussed his books, football news and the Middle East on TV and radio shows including Sky News, CNN, BBC Breakfast News, The Today Programme on Radio 4, Five Live Breakfast, TalkSport, Capital Gold and BBC Radio London. He was featured on the BBC 2 documentary Cold War Kids, the Sky One show Celebrities On Heat and The Biography Channel and Fuse Television's documentaries on Amy Winehouse.
Newkey-Burden has a blog, entitled OyVaGoy, in which he describes himself as 'philosemitic' and posts opinions firmly in support of the state of Israel, and critical of those he perceives as being against Israel.
In July 2008, the British satirical magazine Private Eye reported that Newkey-Burden had posted positive reviews of his own books on the Amazon.co.uk online bookstore.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 11, 2010
Oh boy...
When Burden was finally able to withdraw his nose from up Sir Alan's arse, he wrote one of the worst books I've ever read.
A very small book (250-ish small pages, in rather large print), attempting to present Sugar as the Single Perfect Being (SPB(TM)) in the entire universe, with so little insight it makes you wonder why bother at all. With a Bibliography section containing just two sources (seriously! I'm not making this up!), one of which is the *excellent* "The Amstrad Story", I guess you can't expect much.
His analysis is so superfluous I imagine he wrote most of the book before he even had coffee in the mornings.
I bought it primarily to read about Sugar's line of computers. Well... You get to the "Computers" chapter in page 40 (so that's only 40 pages for his life before that point!!!) and... you get done with them things by page 62 or so. The writing is so skin-deep that he doesn't even mention the names of the models that Sugar marketed (save, I believe, the 1512), and it offers absolutely no new information on the whole process. But, what can you expect from a book that totally (I mean *totally*) skips over the early years with the TV radio sets or the tower HiFis...
Leave it well alone. Read the Amstrad Story instead...
When Burden was finally able to withdraw his nose from up Sir Alan's arse, he wrote one of the worst books I've ever read.
A very small book (250-ish small pages, in rather large print), attempting to present Sugar as the Single Perfect Being (SPB(TM)) in the entire universe, with so little insight it makes you wonder why bother at all. With a Bibliography section containing just two sources (seriously! I'm not making this up!), one of which is the *excellent* "The Amstrad Story", I guess you can't expect much.
His analysis is so superfluous I imagine he wrote most of the book before he even had coffee in the mornings.
I bought it primarily to read about Sugar's line of computers. Well... You get to the "Computers" chapter in page 40 (so that's only 40 pages for his life before that point!!!) and... you get done with them things by page 62 or so. The writing is so skin-deep that he doesn't even mention the names of the models that Sugar marketed (save, I believe, the 1512), and it offers absolutely no new information on the whole process. But, what can you expect from a book that totally (I mean *totally*) skips over the early years with the TV radio sets or the tower HiFis...
Leave it well alone. Read the Amstrad Story instead...
June 28, 2014
Charles Philip Newkey Burden is a British author and journalist who was born in 1973. He has written biographies of many famous people including Justin Bieber and Amy Winehouse. I bought this book by him, Sir Alan Sugar, The Biography when it was withdrawn from circulation and sold for 10pence UK/15cents US. I was robbed! This is a truly dreadful book. burden
Sir Alan Sugar, The Biography does tell of Alan Sugar's rise from relatively modest beginnings to his current day fame and fortune. However, there is little in the book that could not be found in Who's Who, Wikipedia and newspaper articles. I had hoped for something inciteful, different and interesting. That was not to be found here.
The book swings between factual timeline and sycophantic clap trap that I doubt Alan Sugar (now Lord Sugar) would have any time for.
In case you do not know, Alan Sugar left school without qualifications and worked hard, first for others and later for himself. He has always been good at spotting business opportunities. He established the computer company Amstrad within five years of leaving school. The company made Alan Sugar a great deal of money when it floated on the stock exchange.
sir alan
Alan Sugar also had a rather painful flirtation with "the beautiful game" when he was chairman of the London football club Tottenham Hotspurs for a few years. However, today, the man who is now Lord Sugar is probably best known as a business adviser to the British Government and as the unlikely television star of the British version of The Apprentice. He is also, unsurprisingly, named in the Sunday Times Rich List.
I have no doubt that this kind of book makes Charlie Burden a great deal of money, because of the name of the subject of the biography. I, for one, am glad I did not pay full price for it. I cannot recommend it, except, perhaps, to prop up a table if you have one that wobbles.
Sir Alan Sugar, The Biography does tell of Alan Sugar's rise from relatively modest beginnings to his current day fame and fortune. However, there is little in the book that could not be found in Who's Who, Wikipedia and newspaper articles. I had hoped for something inciteful, different and interesting. That was not to be found here.
The book swings between factual timeline and sycophantic clap trap that I doubt Alan Sugar (now Lord Sugar) would have any time for.
In case you do not know, Alan Sugar left school without qualifications and worked hard, first for others and later for himself. He has always been good at spotting business opportunities. He established the computer company Amstrad within five years of leaving school. The company made Alan Sugar a great deal of money when it floated on the stock exchange.
sir alan
Alan Sugar also had a rather painful flirtation with "the beautiful game" when he was chairman of the London football club Tottenham Hotspurs for a few years. However, today, the man who is now Lord Sugar is probably best known as a business adviser to the British Government and as the unlikely television star of the British version of The Apprentice. He is also, unsurprisingly, named in the Sunday Times Rich List.
I have no doubt that this kind of book makes Charlie Burden a great deal of money, because of the name of the subject of the biography. I, for one, am glad I did not pay full price for it. I cannot recommend it, except, perhaps, to prop up a table if you have one that wobbles.
May 24, 2011
ماني متعود على قراءة البيوغرافي، لكن كونه (سير الن) الكتاب جيد وفيه من عفويه الكاتب الشي الكثير.
فيه قصه نجاحه المعروفه مع شركة امستراد و قصه صناعه الستالايت وفشله بعد شراء نادي بلدته.
وخطابه على طلاب جامعه هارفارد، و قصه برنامجه المشهور
The apprentice
انسان على قوله إخواننا المصريين (دغري) ما يلف ويدور في الاداره، وفي برنامجه الي الي يعرض على
BBC1
البرنامج فيه دروس كثيره و مفيده وحقيقيه لمن لديه عمل خاص او يحب الاداره، لن ولم تدرس في مرحلة الماجستير.
أخذ في التسعينات اتوقع جائزة افضل رجل اعمال ناشئ ، بدا من الصفر ، بدا من بيع الفجل.
اعتبره راجحي بريطانيا.
يحب الطلاب ورواد الاعمال و يلقي بعض المحاضرات لطلاب المدارس و الجامعات.
فيه قصه نجاحه المعروفه مع شركة امستراد و قصه صناعه الستالايت وفشله بعد شراء نادي بلدته.
وخطابه على طلاب جامعه هارفارد، و قصه برنامجه المشهور
The apprentice
انسان على قوله إخواننا المصريين (دغري) ما يلف ويدور في الاداره، وفي برنامجه الي الي يعرض على
BBC1
البرنامج فيه دروس كثيره و مفيده وحقيقيه لمن لديه عمل خاص او يحب الاداره، لن ولم تدرس في مرحلة الماجستير.
أخذ في التسعينات اتوقع جائزة افضل رجل اعمال ناشئ ، بدا من الصفر ، بدا من بيع الفجل.
اعتبره راجحي بريطانيا.
يحب الطلاب ورواد الاعمال و يلقي بعض المحاضرات لطلاب المدارس و الجامعات.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews