About this Book

This is the story of a long and event-filled life, of sixty-seven years in business and the lessons learned along the way by a remarkable man. Born in the Jewish quarter of a small Iranian town in 1932, David Alliance left school at thirteen, ran his own business in the bazaar in Tehran, emigrated to Manchester at the age of nineteen and, through some of the most spectacular City takeovers of the post-War era, created the biggest textile company in Europe, with over 60,000 employees. But until now little is known of the inner (now Lord) David Alliance, the forces that have driven him, the circumstances which have shaped him and the events which have at times taken him far beyond the borders of the business world. In this book he reveals stories, anecdotes and incidents which he had never even confided to his closest friends or family before: of his early days in Manchester when he had to drink water from the tap to fill his empty stomach before he went to bed at night. Or walking from warehouse to mill until his feet bled because he did not have the bus fare. Of how he slept on the street when his landlady locked him out because he didn't have the rent money. Now eighty, he describes his basic philosophy of life, originally formed in the bazaar, as: 'put your heart and soul into whatever you do, try to improve on and learn from what you did yesterday, and always believe you can find a way of overcoming any obstacle in your way. Never give up - there's always a way'.