Few people have led such an extraordinary life as Whitaker Wright (1846-1904). Few have died in such sensational circumstances. He began his career as an impoverished Methodist preacher in the North Country. Swapping God for Mammon, he went to America and made millions prospecting for gold and silver in the Rockies. Losing the lot, he returned to England in disgrace, leaving behind a trail of angry investors. Australian gold was his new route to riches, and within five years he was Britain’s wealthiest man. He became friends with the Prince of Wales and the Kaiser, bought Gladstone’s mansion in Park Lane, acquired a French mistress, and built the ultimate folly — a glass underwater smoking room beneath a Surrey lake. On the last trading day of the 19th century, his empire went bust, ruining thousands of people. He fled to New York with his niece, but Scotland Yard caught up with him and brought him back to London. At the end of what the press dubbed ‘the most dramatic trial of modern times’ there was a shocking twist to his remarkable story…Read more...