Summary
AS HE SITS AT HIS DESK on the first floor of his Mayfair house, Naim Attallah can look around him with pride. All around his office are mementoes of a career of Balzacian dimensions: books he brought into being as head of Quartet Books, framed covers of the magazines he owned (the Oldie, the Literary Review, the Wire); photos of premieres of films he produced and plays he brought to London's West End.
Considering that he arrived from Palestine in 1948 almost penniless, his is a remarkable achievement. Without a silver spoon anywhere near his mouth, this former painter, steeplejack and jazz club bouncer conquered the notoriously cliquish and impenetrable world of literary London and, as head of Asprey's, the upper-class jewellery trade.See the full content of this document
Extract
Birth of a Literary Lion
Naim Utterly-Disgusting, Private Eye used to call him, envious of his "harem" of upper-class gel assistants - Nigella Lawson, Rebecca Fraser, Emma Soames and the like - he employed at Quartet. "Wh...
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