Thomas Michael Bower was born on 28 September 1946 and is a British writer and former BBC journalist and television producer.
20 Facts About Tom Bower
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Tom Bower is known for his investigative journalism and for his unauthorised biographies, often of business tycoons and newspaper proprietors.
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Tom Bower's books include unauthorised biographies of Robert Maxwell, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Conrad Black, Richard Branson, Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson.
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Tom Bower's book, Broken Dreams: Vanity, Greed and the Souring of British Football, won the 2003 William Hill Sports Book of the Year.
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Tom Bower's parents were Jewish refugees who fled Prague after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 and arrived in London later that same year.
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In 1970, Tom Bower joined the BBC as a researcher on the programme 24 Hours before becoming a reporter on Panorama.
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Tom Bower was a producer on Panorama from 1975 until 1987.
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Tom Bower's book was serialised in The Times in September 1983.
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The second book, Maxwell: The Outsider by Tom Bower sold out in hardback but Maxwell prevented the paperback edition appearing, in part by buying the publishing company which held the paperback rights.
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Tom Bower believes that Maxwell tried to break into his house and went through his phone records and bank statements.
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In 1993, Tom Bower published a biography of Lonrho tycoon Tiny Rowland, entitled Tiny Rowland.
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In 1997, Tom Bower published Blood Money: The Swiss, the Nazis and the Looted Billions detailing his thesis of how the Swiss Government and the Swiss Banks colluded to prevent the return of Jewish-owned World War II-era bank accounts to their rightful owners until the World Jewish Congress filed suit in 1995.
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Tom Bower continues to write articles critical of Branson's business affairs, and published biographies of him in 2000 and 2014.
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In 2001, Tom Bower published The Paymaster: Geoffrey Robinson, Maxwell and New Labour, a biography of the Labour MP Geoffrey Robinson.
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In 2003, Tom Bower won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for Broken Dreams: Vanity, Greed and the Souring of British Football, an investigation into corruption in English football.
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Tom Bower wrote that Desmond had been "ground into the dust" by Black in a business dispute.
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Tom Bower denied libel on the grounds of the story being "substantially true".
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In 2011 Tom Bower published a biography of the Formula One executive Bernie Ecclestone titled No Angel: The Secret Life of Bernie Ecclestone.
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Over lunch Ecclestone told Tom Bower "You write what you like, provided it's more or less the truth, because I'm no angel".
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Tom Bower is married to Veronica Wadley, Baroness Fleet, former editor of the London Evening Standard, and has four children.