He was the world’s most notorious media tycoon. Unapologetic about his right-wing agenda, corporate manoeuvres, and lavish lifestyle, Conrad Black seemed almost untouchable with a newspaper empire that spanned three continents and a seat in Britain’s House of Lords. But in the fall of 2003 his carefully constructed world began to crumble as his own company accused him of siphoning off millions of dollars of corporate money. He now found himself the target of U.S. regulators, an object of ridicule in the international press, and a self-described “pariah” among the rich and famous he once called his friends.

With the style and momentum of a suspense thriller, Wrong Way offers an in-depth portrayal of how the seemingly invulnerable magnate of Hollinger International Inc. (encompassing The Daily Telegraph, The Jerusalem Post, and the Chicago Sun-Times) was brought down by his own shareholders and ousted as head of his company. By gaining behind-the-scenes accounts of his corporate machinations and interviewing leading industry players, Globe and Mail business reporters Jacquie McNish and Sinclair Stewart pinpoint where Black went wrong.

National Business Book Award Winner
International Bestseller

“Frighteningly well researched…The strength of this book lies in the business details and the very clear way in which the authors trace Black’s skirmishes… The authors’ access to private letters and emails is astonishing. However they got their hands on them, it is gripping stuff. There are dozens of candid emails between Black and his associates, Black and investors, and faxes between Black and Sir David Barclay…”—The Times (London)

“Wrong Way is the way to go. McNish, long one of Canada’s best business writers, and her Globe and Mail colleague Stewart, have produced a nimble account of Black’s final days… In McNish and Stewart’s professional hands, Black comes off as the emperor who dismissed the peasants’ complaints until they stormed through the palace gates and strung him up. It’s an engaging tale, well told.”—The New York Times

“McNish and Stewart are very serious business journalists, out to provide the blow-by-blow, detail-by-detail disaster over which the Blacks presided…some of the boardroom scenes, complete with Shakespearean quotations, remain pungently hilarious.”—The Globe and Mail

“An eminently readable, racy account of Black’s alleged corporate misdeeds, which also tackles with clarity the complex financial transactions that led to his downfall…colourful…”—The Observer

Jacquie McNish has been a business journalist in Canada and the United States for twenty-four years and has won numerous journalism awards including a National Newspaper Award in 1993 and 2003. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, with her husband and two sons. Sinclair Stewart is a Globe and Mail business reporter, where he covers financial services. He was formerly a financial reporter with the National Post. He lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his partner and their dog, Ahab.