Back in the early days of News International’s Wapping plant and as a self-proclaimed expert on the works of the portrait painter Harold Speed, I was often driven around London in Charlie Wilson’s Jaguar, looking at paintings for him to buy.
Once I stepped from The Times office straight into the car and heat radiating from the indented seat surprised me. I asked Joe, the driver, why it was so hot and he said: “A’ve just dropped orf Rupert Murdoch,” as though that explained all. It might have led to a discussion in itself, but as I pulled the door closed the whole interior panel came away in my hand. “Don’t worry,” said Joe, “this one’s goin’ back shortly. Mr Murdoch was driving it last week an’ broke down,” adding, “On a roundabout. ‘E ’ad to push it.”
