This is the Internet home of my brand new podcast, Remarkable Characters, a podcast where I will be discussing the lives, times and achievements of some extraordinary people. Most were brilliant, some driven by huge ambition, others more by their artistic calling. Some of them seem to have been rather nice people. Some, perhaps, were harder to live with. Artists, authors, businessmen and sports personalities, they were all remarkable people.
The people I will portray are truly characters, or true characters, if you will. Characters in the sense that many of them sound as if they are from a novel, or from a Hollywood film. Some of them possibly even sound as if they are characters in a rather poor and cheap novel, and they may not be entirely credible. Nevertheless, they are, or were, rather, real people of flesh and bones. They are, in my opinion, remarkable people who achieved remarkable things.
In the very first episode I shall be discussing the life and times of a German Jew who emigrated to England a little more than 200 years ago. He first went to Manchester as a textile trader, before moving on to become a man of finance in the City of London. He was highly involved in the Napoleonic Wars, and, indeed, he contributed to Napoleon’s ultimate defeat. And yet, he never saw combat.
He was also the catalyst of a financial empire that would contribute to the independence of Belgium, as well as Brazil, and later to the creation of Rhodesia. This financial empire would later own Rio Tinto, Club Med, famous French wine producers Chateaux Mouton and Lafitte, De Beers Diamonds etc etc. The list really does go on and on. And, even if the family would become increasingly secretive and low-key in the 20th century, or perhaps because of this, they have been regular elements in various conspiracy theories.
The man in question also contributed, in his own way, to the abolition of slavery in England, and he was, in his day, quite possibly, the wealthiest man on Earth.
Stay tuned for the first episode of Remarkable Characters.
