Jeremy Gordon Norman

Jeremy Gordon Norman was born in Marylebone, London in 1947. His father was Wing Commander Roland Frank Holdway Norman and his mother was Mrs John Sim (Neé Peggy, daughter of Percy Johnson).

He was educated at Harrow School and Pembroke College, Cambridge University, where he graduated with his MA in 1976.

After Cambridge Norman became a self-employed entrepreneur and has continued to be so ever since – the result is a business life rich and diverse in people, work and places.

He became involved in 1974 in Burke’s Peerage through a school friend, Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, editor at the time and chairman of the Holdaway Group, a genealogical reference publisher. Other directors included Patrick, Earl of Lichfield, John Brooke-Little, Richmond Herald of Arms. In 1984, Burke’s Peerage decided to separate and sell the copyright: Burke’s Peerage was acquired by Frederik Jan Gustav Floris, Baron van Pallandt (1934–94) whilst Burke’s Landed Gentry and other titles were sold elsewhere. Burke’s Peerage was then bought by Joseph Goldberg, who reprinted the immediate previous edition.

His first nightclub was The Embassy in Old Bond Street, "London's first modern New York-style nightclub … attracted many celebrities". Other directors were Michael Fish (sixties fashion designer) and Derek Johns (old master picture dealer and director of Sotheby's, 1968). Norman sold The Embassy to Lady Edith Foxwell. Meanwhile, he created an entirely new form of club, the ultradisco Heaven, in Charing Cross in 1979, which "quickly established itself as the centre of London gay nightlife" and soon became Europe’s largest and "the world’s most famous gay nightclub". Norman’s partner, Derek Frost, designed the "original hi-tech interior". Heaven introduced a new music style, Hi-NRG. After four years Norman sold the club to Richard Branson of Virgin.

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