Bonfire of the Murdochs

‘Utterly gripping’ – Spectator

‘An exuberant chronicle of seduction and betrayal’ - Tina Brown, The Observer

Based on interviews with more than 150 inside sources, bestselling political journalist Gabriel Sherman reveals the inside story of the Murdoch family war. 

When Rupert Murdoch first considered who should inherit his media colossus, controlling FOX News, The Washington Post and tabloids on three continents, he believed that pitting his children against each other would produce the most capable heir. That gamble would tear apart one of the world’s most powerful families and trigger a multi-billion dollar reckoning in a succession battle of betrayal, lawsuits, and revenge.

Rupert’s eventual decision to rip up the secret trust controlling his empire and anoint his conservative firstborn son Lachlan as successor set him on a catastrophic collision course with his three more liberal children. What price would Rupert pay to secure his legacy? For the aging patriarch, this would be his final and most personal deal.

Bonfire of the Murdochs is a richly textured narrative of a family feud that explodes in a climactic courtroom showdown, with Murdoch’s children weaponizing his own secrets against him. It is a tragedy Shakespeare would have appreciated, where getting everything you want costs everything you love.

Reviews

‘A rollercoaster account […] What Bonfire of the Murdochs, a slim book by Gabriel Sherman, achieves is to condense the history to its essence. The book seeks to explain Murdoch’s broken family relationships not as a departure from his empire-building, but a product of the same ruthlessness that facilitated his success’ – Financial Times

‘This is the book for fans of Succession. […] Sherman knows his material. He has a clear fascination with viewing global events through the lens of a single, power-hungry protagonist’ – New Statesman

‘Sherman has written a family saga that gallops through 100 years of history in around 200 lively pages’ – Economist