How Robert Maxwell became 'the crook of the century' 5/5 MP, tycoon and fraudster Robert Maxwell, pictured in 1969, UK Credit: Hulton Archive It’s quite rare for a biography to be described as “jaw-dropping”, but this one truly is – Robert Maxwell is the most compelling, mysterious, monstrous character since Anthony Trollope’s Melmotte. The British Establishment always regarded him with deep suspicion and called him “the Bouncing Czech”, but by the end of his life he was being wooed by prime ministers and heads of state. It was only after his mysterious death that he was exposed...