Rise and fall of London-born brothers over seven decades is the untold story of post-war Britain told through the lives of the two men who helped shape it: Sir David Barclay and Sir Frederick Barclay who pioneered their use of debt other people’s money in raising funds from banks and finding ways to manage loan structures and tax losses to their advantage. When they faced political opposition to the highly leveraged £750m takeover of the Imperial Continental Gas Association in 1986, they also learnt a lesson that friends in Whitehall are useful.  Their close relations with senior Conservatives  and a relationship with Margaret Thatcher, who spent her last days living at the Ritz under their ownership.

You May Never See Us Again is the only definitive story of David and Frederick Barclay – commonly known as the Barclay brothers. Born poor working class family in south-west London, these enigmatic identical twins built one of the biggest fortunes in Britain together from scratch and spent six decades at the epicentre of British business, media and politics. Their empire, said to be worth £7bn at its height, included Littlewoods, the Ritz Hotel, The Daily Telegraph and the channel island of Brecqhou. They were major advocates for Brexit and well-connected with influential politicians including Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage. The business built by Frederick and David Barclay is that it is secretive to the point of reclusiveness.

They built their empire on their private island off the coast of Guernsey, Fort Breecqhou which they acquired in 1993.  David died in 2021, at the age of 86. Martinson attempts to make up for their mysteries of their early lives with descriptions of the city in the 1930s all peasoupers and cheap lodging houses and like many entrepreneurs of the period, the brothers made their first fortunes in the booming postwar property market, using this  success as a spring board to move on bigger and better deals in the 1960s and 1970s.  The twins wrong-footed blue-blooded City Bankers  with their speed and sharp eye for an undervalued asset and weak management as a lucrative exit often ensued. Buying The Ritz in 1995, was the most public display of their wealth, as even this was tax-efficient, the great attraction was a ticket into high society. The brothers took table nine in the restaurant, the only other people who could reserve it were the British royal family. Meetings are timed by the length of their cigars, with a friendship with the Prince of Wales now King Charles.

The pair had many buyouts during the next decade agreeing to back Sir Philip Green’s deal for Sears before venturing into retail themselves with the acquisition of Littlewoods and then GUS formerly Great Universal Stores. Their acquisition of The Telegraph in 2004 didn’t yield a financial killing, but ownership of the newspaper cemented their status as pillars of the Tory establishment. But an early decision to move into online deliveries with Yodel became a financial disaster. A battle over interest of Claridge’s, the Berkeley and the Connaught hotels in London forced them to retreat after costly series of court cases,  Martinson reveals forensically sifting through company documents to show the tangled movement of loans and repayments. In 2015, Frederick ceded control of the empire to David’s children by agreeing that his only child, Amanda would have just 25 per cent held in trusts. Two public court cases followed and led to the family’s fortunes judged on the front pages. Initially a claim by Frederick against his nephews over bugging of his conversations at the Ritz, and then a protracted and disputatious £100m divorce settlement with his ex-wife. When the family lost control of The Telegraph to its lenders at Lloyds, for once finding that a banking relationship wasn’t to their advantage. Yodel is now for sale and the future of Littlewoods is in doubt.

And yet despite their fortune and influence, their fiercely guarded desire for privacy has meant that their story remained largely unknown – until a very public family dispute pitched Barclay against Barclay in the High Court.

You May Never See Us Again: The Barclay Dynasty by Jane Martinson, Penguin Business £25, 320 pages.