Abstract
This paper reviews "Shades of Black: Conrad Black - His Rise and Fall", Richard Siklos's well written biography of Conrad Black's career and dramatic collapse after 2002. The paper explains that Siklos interviewed more than 200 persons before a 1995 edition of which this volume is a revised expansion featuring another 50 interviews. Siklos also spent hours speaking to Black, indirectly attempting to account for his extravagance and need to impress others, atop his drive for power. Much is revealed through Siklos's notes on Black's wife, the former Barbara Amiel. The paper reports that Siklos leads the reader through a summary of Black's family background, his youth in north Toronto's Bride Path area, his expulsion from Upper Canada College, and later, Trinity College School, before Thornton Hall, Toronto.

Tags:conradblack, biography, review