THE legend is surely ineradicable - a bravura instance of the maverick taking the path less trodden. "Full of self-belief" (as one scholar puts it), brimming with fervent ambition, unstoppably articulate (hence the nickname "Silvertongue"), blessed with a seductive, almost corrosive charm (lethally effective face-to-face) twinned with authentic ruthlessness, his is an irresistible story: a story of stamina, unquenchable appetites and recherché interests, not so much evidenced by the manor house in Sussex as by the equestrian tastes, as well...
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