The prize is more than to be Chairman of the Board; it is to control the biggest and most prestigious hotel chain in the world. Two men race towards this goal. One is an American, born to nothing; the other is an Englishman, born to everything.

Harry Rudd is a Boston airport Ioader's son, thrust to boardroom power by the death of an heiress wife he adored. Sir lan Buckland also achieved his position and his title by inheritance: a father-to-son legacy neglected for the gambling tables of Mayfair, a yachting club, and the charms of one of his wife's oldest friends.

The takeover battle pits American ruthlessness against British Establishment in a raw test of survival which neither is prepared to lose...