Kerry Stokes: Self-Made Man by Margaret Simons

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Dust jacket has some light creasing at edges and spine. Interior and binding are still excellent.

Kerry Stokes came into the world with no advantages. Unlike his rival magnates, he built his empire from nothing. Kerry Stokes: Self-Made Man is the real, fascinating story behind the rabbits-to-riches ascendancy of one of Australia's most powerful men.

Plucked from an orphanage as an infant, Kerry Stokes grew up in the slums and streets of post-Depression Melbourne with his itinerant, adoptive parents. As a boy, he trapped, skinned and sold rabbits to make ends meet and seemed destined for a life of hardship and poverty.

Today, Stokes is one of Australia's most successful business moguls, with interests in property, mining, construction equipment and media. He picked the boom in China ahead of the pack and forged strong relationships there. He is a recipient of Australia's highest civil honour, and in 2013, he was a nominee for Australian of the Year.

He owns one of the the finest private art collection in the country, and has sat on the governing bodies of some of our leading cultural institutions.

As the Packer family departs the media and the Murdoch clan tackles damage to its reputation on three continents, Stokes is emerging as Australia's single most influential media proprietor.

Yet Stokes has remained relatively low-profile and is notoriously private. Mysterious and elusive, Stokes is the archetypal self-made man, driven by the determination to escape his past and the legacy of disadvantage. But at what cost? (book flap)