"It's absurd this idea that celebrities can't be anonymous," Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid, wife of David Bowie, told The Observer last June. "We even went on the London Eye." The image of the supermodel, Bowie and their daughter Lexi joining the hoi polloi in transparent pods above the Thames while holidaying in the UK recently is an intriguing one. How, one wonders, were the Bowies able to evade the paparazzi while living "normal" family life so visibly?
Wendy Leigh's Bowie: The Biography [Amazon.com; Amazon.co.uk] is largely concerned with Bowie's other, much less normal life, ie the pre-Iman years. This is only right, of course, given that this was when the singer did most of his best work. It's important to stress, however, that this New York Times best-selling author has more to say about Bowie's dalliances and excesses than she does about Hunky Dory, Low or The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
Together with Christopher Ciccone, Leigh wrote 2008's Life with My Sister Madonna, the kind of penetrating but controversial work that can typecast a biographer. Entertaining and informative as Leigh's latest book is, it's perhaps telling that it starts with an account of Bowie and Iman's 1992 wedding in Florence, an event which Hello! magazine paid millions of dollars to document across 23 glossy pages.
Like Hello!, Leigh has a specific audience in mind here, hence there will be no talk of the brilliant modulations Bowie factored into Rock 'n' Roll Suicide, and no further rumination on the cut-up technique his lyrics borrowed from William Burroughs. To be fair, this is an approach that many will welcome with open arms, but it's odd that at no point does this Bowie biographer flex an adjective to describe her subject's voice, one of the most distinctive and classy instruments in pop. It's a bit like making an omelette without the eggs.
More than anything, perhaps, Leigh’s fairly compact book is a who’s who of Bowie’s love life. Accordingly, she leaves no duvet unturned. With Charlie Chaplin’s widow Oona, Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Sarandon, Bianca Jagger, Ronnie Spector and countless others among Bowie’s conquests, it’s quite a roll-call, and nor does Leigh shy away from the activities that took place between consenting adults from September 1969 at Haddon Hall, Beckenham, the Edwardian mansion that Bowie shared with his first wife Angie, née Barnett, during their decidedly open marriage.
Sex is such a prevalent theme in Leigh’s book that, when you get to the end of it, it’s the women who rejected Bowie’s advances you remember most. Debbie Harry of Blondie, for example. Or the Belgian-born Monique van Vooren, whose appeal to Bowie was magnified by the fact that she once dated Elvis Presley (a star who, like Bowie, was born on the 8th of January).
Leigh is good on how the peculiarities of Bowie’s family background shaped him – and on what they cost him. She argues that his distant, emotionally undemonstrative mother Peggy left him in want of a more loving maternal figure who eventually arrived in the shape of his long-term PA, Coco Schwab, a woman so devoted she would wake him each morning with a fresh orange juice, then light his cigarette.
More darkly resonant, Leigh shows, was the schizophrenia that ran in Bowie's family and ultimately led his half-brother Terry to take his own life. It was in January 1985, after he'd escaped from Cane Hill asylum in Coulsdon, Surrey, that Terry Burns jumped down on to a nearby railway track and was run over. The author explores Bowie's long-term estrangement from his half-brother in some detail and cites the singer's fear of developing schizophrenia as both a black dog and a key creative spur, but curiously she doesn't mention Jump They Say, the 1993 single on which Bowie alluded to Terry's suicide directly.
Naturally, the book has its lighter moments too, and it details plenty of starry encounters. Morrissey chatting to Bowie on the phone is a droll clash of egos, Bob Dylan is unimpressed when Bowie subjects him to repeat plays of Young Americans, Marlene Dietrich refuses to be photographed with the Thin White Duke despite him travelling to her Paris home to meet her, and Frank Sinatra is adamant that "no English fag" is going to play him in a movie.
It’s Marc Bolan and John Lennon who emerge as friends proper, and this despite a certain sparky rivalry with Bowie. Leigh tells how, when Bolan died in car crash in 1977 and his son Rolan was left cash-poor due to his mother and Bolan not being married, Bowie stepped in to pay for Rolan’s education. She also records that Lennon’s conversation-nixing riposte to the question “Are you John Lennon?” (“No, but I wish I had his money”) was gleefully appropriated by Bowie, who would adapt it for own use when similarly buttonholed.
This is all good stuff, but there are places in Leigh's book where mistakes and misplaced conjecture niggle. Play School, the long-running UK children's show watched by the young Bowie, was broadcast by the BBC, not ITV as Leigh has it, and her thesis that the (fabulous, let's be clear) Mick Ronson guitar sound on 1970's The Man Who Sold the World "perhaps marked the birth of heavy metal" is just plain wrong, as fans of bands such as Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer can attest.
Elsewhere, the author draws an awkward line of connection between Bowie’s left-handedness and anisocoria (different-sized pupils), and the considerably more alienating and debilitating condition of Joseph Carey Merrick, otherwise known as The Elephant Man, whom Bowie portrayed to great acclaim in a Broadway production of the same name throughout 1980. Leigh is trying to make a point about Bowie being able to empathise with Merrick, but the lack of parity between their respective trials makes her comparison seem an unfortunate error of judgement.
All the same, the author has enough supporting quotes and anecdotal evidence to paint a full and convincing portrait of the artist as a young man. Bowie is charming but sexually predatory. He can be ruthless or extraordinarily kind. He’s a big reader and a picky eater. He wants to know the date of birth of journalists due to interview him so he can do their astrological charts. He’s highly adept at self-promotion and headline-grabbing sound bites, but is for many years ruinously naive about his sometime manager Tony Defries’s profligate spending of his (Bowie’s) money.
It’s the final chapter of Leigh’s book that is most satisfying. Beginning with Bowie and Iman’s February 2000 announcement that they were expecting their first child, it attempts to bring things right up to date. With Bowie’s wild years behind him, moreover, Leigh can stop cataloguing his conquests and really think around her subject.
She details the death of Bowie's mother in 2001, his turning down a knighthood in 2003, and the heart attack he suffered onstage in Oslo in 2004. Bowie's subsequent retreat to the secure "panic room"-equipped loft apartment in SoHo, New York City, that he shares with Iman and Lexi is also discussed, as is the bolt-from-the-blue masterstroke that was Where Are We Now?, the single he released on January 8, 2013, his 66th birthday.
I'm not sure that Leigh's book warrants the definitive connotations of its title Bowie: The Biography; rather it is a biography, or another biography – one curiously lacking proper analysis of the great man's music.
That said, you have to admire Leigh’s closing flight of fantasy, wherein she imagines what went through the head of Ken Pitt, Bowie’s early-period manager, when he visited the Victoria and Albert Museum’s David Bowie exhibition in 2013 at the age of 90. It’s an evocative and poignant piece of writing, the author employing a winning change of tack right at the last.
James McNair writes for Mojo magazine and The Independent.
thereview@thenational.ae
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The specs: 2019 BMW X4
Price, base / as tested: Dh276,675 / Dh346,800
Engine: 3.0-litre turbocharged in-line six-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 354hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 1,550rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.0L / 100km
VEZEETA PROFILE
Date started: 2012
Founder: Amir Barsoum
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: HealthTech / MedTech
Size: 300 employees
Funding: $22.6 million (as of September 2018)
Investors: Technology Development Fund, Silicon Badia, Beco Capital, Vostok New Ventures, Endeavour Catalyst, Crescent Enterprises’ CE-Ventures, Saudi Technology Ventures and IFC
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Crops that could be introduced to the UAE
1: Quinoa
2. Bathua
3. Amaranth
4. Pearl and finger millet
5. Sorghum
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
MORE ON IRAN'S PROXY WARS
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
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Find the right policy for you
Don’t wait until the week you fly to sign up for insurance – get it when you book your trip. Insurance covers you for cancellation and anything else that can go wrong before you leave.
Some insurers, such as World Nomads, allow you to book once you are travelling – but, as Mr Mohammed found out, pre-existing medical conditions are not covered.
Check your credit card before booking insurance to see if you have any travel insurance as a benefit – most UAE banks, such as Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, have cards that throw in insurance as part of their package. But read the fine print – they may only cover emergencies while you’re travelling, not cancellation before a trip.
Pre-existing medical conditions such as a heart condition, diabetes, epilepsy and even asthma may not be included as standard. Again, check the terms, exclusions and limitations of any insurance carefully.
If you want trip cancellation or curtailment, baggage loss or delay covered, you may need a higher-grade plan, says Ambareen Musa of Souqalmal.com. Decide how much coverage you need for emergency medical expenses or personal liability. Premium insurance packages give up to $1 million (Dh3.7m) in each category, Ms Musa adds.
Don’t wait for days to call your insurer if you need to make a claim. You may be required to notify them within 72 hours. Gather together all receipts, emails and reports to prove that you paid for something, that you didn’t use it and that you did not get reimbursed.
Finally, consider optional extras you may need, says Sarah Pickford of Travel Counsellors, such as a winter sports holiday. Also ensure all individuals can travel independently on that cover, she adds. And remember: “Cheap isn’t necessarily best.”
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
