Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge
The cover of the hardback first edition
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| Author | Tom Bower |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Harper Perennial |
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Publication date
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2006 |
| Pages | 448 (hardcover) 515 (softcover) |
| ISBN | (hardcover) ISBN (softcover) |
Conrad and Lady Black: Dancing on the Edge (published as Outrageous Fortune: The Rise and Ruin of Conrad and Lady Black in the United States) is a 2006 biography of the Canadian businessman and author Conrad Black and his wife, the British born Canadian journalist Barbara Amiel, by the British journalist and biographer Tom Bower.
The book consists of 14 chapters, with a preface and introduction. An updated edition of the book was issued in paperback to include coverage of Conrad Black's criminal trial for fraud and obstruction of justice. The book details Black's personal biography and an account of his business career and marriage to Barbara Amiel and their lifestyle. In the acknowledgements section of the book Bower thanks Black's three previous biographers, Peter C. Newman, Richard Skilos, and Jackie McNish for their previous works on Black, and the 200 people that he interviewed while writing the book. Bower declined Black's offer to cooperate with the book, which was apparently offered on the basis that the book would not be published until his trial was over.
The biography received largely enthusiastic reviews, with reviewers highlighting Tom Bower's research and the Black's lifestyle. Criticism was reserved for Bower's prose style.
Writing in the New Statesman, Cristina Odone said that
Greed, conspicuous consumption and a selfishness beyond parody: this is capitalism red in tooth and claw. It is also a compulsive yarn. But then, could it be otherwise when the protagonists are so outrageously over-the-top, so unfettered by convention – and so wickedly appealing?
Referring to his then upcoming trial for fraud, Odone says that
Bower has ensured that we need not wait until then to hear the evidence against Lord Black. With painstaking care, he assembles facts, insights and anecdotes. Even if Lord Black walks free from the courtroom, Bower's chronicle, like the narrator's prison diary in Kind Hearts and Coronets, will have sealed his fate.
Peter Preston gave a more critical review of the book for The Observer, writing that
Against all odds, you begin to feel a twinge of sympathy for [Black] ...It is three years since his world collapsed, yet his day in court still lies far away...now along comes grim literary reaper Tom Bower, preparing another of his killer investigations. Will Conrad co-operate? Tom asks innocently. No fear! says Lord B; I know you're writing the story of 'two sleazy, spivvy, contemptible people who enjoyed fraudulent and unjust elevation'. Well, he certainly got the plot right. Our difficulty is knowing when the plot quite fits the story.
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