Book Review: You May Never See Us Again

Author: Jane Martinson Genre: Nonfiction Price: £25

Published: October 2023 by Penguin Business Review by: Richard Hocart

Jane Martinson is a freelance journalist ane Martinson is a freelance journalist at City, University of London. Her subject is the twin brothers, Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, born in London in 1934 in relatively humble circumstances: their father was a travelling salesman. She traces their business career from its beginnings in the London property market to ownership of the Ritz Hotel, Littlewoods, Scotsman Publications (publisher of three Scottish newspapers) and Telegraph Media Group. Their success was due in part to quick decision-making, well-timed purchases and an ability to persuade banks to lend. In recent years success has turned to disaster, with the loss of the Telegraph Media Group to settle bank debts.

As newspaper proprietors their management style was unusual, preferring the fax machine to meetings with editors. When they bought their Scottish titles they held a lunch for the editors at the Ritz. On leaving one of the twins said to their guests ‘You many never see us again’; Brian Groom, editor of one of the papers, recalled that he never did.

In 1993 the Barclay brothers purchased the island of Brecqhou. They were attracted by its tax-free status and the privacy which they were keen to protect. Here they built a large castellated mansion which they named Fort Brecqhou.

The island is legally part of Sark. Relations with the neighbouring island, which at first seemed promising (the Barclays made a donation towards the new island hall), deteriorated. One concern that motivated the brothers was the possibility that Sark Chief Pleas might tax them to pay for services in Sark. The brothers commenced legal actions over the status of Brecqhou, Sark’s inheritance laws and its feudal system of government. As Martinson recounts, the seigneur, Michael Beaumont, felt harassed by the criticism from Brecqhou. Beaumont described the brothers in his unpublished autobiography as ‘the neighbours from hell’, the title of one of the two chapters that Martinson devotes to Brecqhou and Sark.

The brothers were awarded knighthoods in 2000. Sir David Barclay, who died in 2021, had four sons, of whom three have had roles in the business empire, and Sir Frederick, who is still alive, has one daughter. Frederick agreed to hand over half of his share of the business empire to his nephews, a decision he came to regret; the brothers became estranged. As Martinson describes, the breakdown of relationships would ‘eventually help to detonate the whole carapace of secrecy’ that the brothers ‘had built around themselves, their family and their business affairs’. Two court cases, one concerning the bugging of the room in the Ritz used for family conferences, and the other concerning Sir Frederick’s failure to pay his ex-wife her divorce settlement, exposed much that the family had kept secret.