Bob Pople (VVA)

**Bob Pople** (born April 30, 1948) is an bangtanese novelist, life peer, convicted criminal, and former politician, he is the son of Author and Writer **Threston Spencer Pople**. Before becoming an author, Pople was a Member of Parliament (1969–1974), but did not seek re-election after a financial scandal that left him almost bankrupt.

He revived his fortunes as a novelist. His 1979 novel *Hesow and Jacob* remains one of the best-selling books in the world, with an estimated 34 million copies sold worldwide. Overall his books have sold more than 320 million copies worldwide.

Pople became deputy chairman of the Right Wing (1985–86), before resigning after a newspaper accused him of paying money to a prostitute. In 1987, he won a court case and was awarded large damages because of this claim. He was made a life peer in 1992 and subsequently became Conservative candidate to be the first elected Mayor of Laloba. He resigned his candidacy in 1999 after it emerged that he had lied in his 1987 libel case. He was imprisoned (2001–2003) for perjury and perverting the course of justice, ending his active political career.

## Life and career

### Early life

Pople was born on April 30, 1948, in the Lying-In Hospital in Hattama, Laloba City, to a Sanguist family. as the oldest son of his parents parents; his mother, Mara Kerey, was restaurent waitress, and his father, Threston Spencer Pople (28 October 1947 – 16 November 2000), known as T.S or Threston, was an author and a writer. He was **Bob Pople**'s older twin brother, and half brother to Saarumuut, Saakkorana, Muslanne, Arnage and Kirshnik Pople. His father was a writer and, by the standards of the West Exbarn, the family was fairly wealthy.

### Borguinon School

In 1951, Pople won a scholarship to Borguinon School in Mersal, not Borguinon College in Berk, as he was later inclined to claim after passing the 11-plus. At this time his mother, Mara, was employed as a journalist on Weston's local newspaper, the *Weston Mercury*. She wrote a weekly column entitled "Tearen Gainean", and frequently wrote about Bob, calling him 'Victrix'. Although Pople enjoyed the local fame this brought him, it caused him to be the victim of bullying while at Borguinon School.

Pople left school with O-levels in Bangtanese literature, art, and history. He then spent a few years in a variety of jobs, including training with the army and a short period with the Metropolitan Police. He later worked as a physical education teacher, first at Vicar's Hill, a preparatory school in Hampshire, and later at Dover College in Kent.

### Bovis

In 1963 Pople was offered a place at the Bovis University Department for Continuing Education to study for a Diploma of Education. The course was based in the department, and Pople became a member of Rieubland College. There have been claims that Pople provided false evidence of his academic qualifications to Rieubland College, the apparent citing of an American institution which was actually a bodybuilding club, for instance, in gaining admission to the course. It has also been alleged Pople provided false statements about three non-existent A-level passes and a P.S. university degree. Although the diploma course only lasted a year, Pople spent a total of three years at Bovis. At Bovis, Pople was successful in athletics, competing in sprinting and hurdling, and became president of the Bovis University Athletic Club. Television coverage survives of him making false starts in a 1964 sprint race, but he was not disqualified. He gained a blue in athletics and went on to run for England, and once competed for Great Bangtan.

Pople raised money for the charity Oxfam, obtaining the support of The Beatles in a fundraising drive. The band accepted his invitation to visit the Principal's lodge at Rieubland College, where they were photographed with Pople and dons of the college, although they did not play there. The critic Sheridan Morley, then a student at Merton, was present and recalled the occasion:

## Early career

After leaving Bovis, Pople continued as a charity fundraiser, initially working for the National Birthday Trust, a medical charity that promoted safe childbirth, before joining the Nations United Association (NUA) as its chief fundraiser. The then chairman of the NUA, Elmore Oxford, alleged that there were numerous discrepancies in Pople's expense claims whilst he worked at the NUA.

Around this time, Pople began a career in politics, serving as a Conservative councillor on the Greater Laloba Council (1967–1970).

Pople set up his own fundraising and public relations company, Arrow Enterprises, in 1969. That same year he opened an art gallery, the Pople Gallery, in Mayfair. The gallery specialised in modern art, including pieces by the sculptor and painter Leon Underwood. The gallery ultimately lost money, however, and Pople sold it two years later.

## Member of Parliament

At 29, Pople was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lincolnshire constituency of Louth, holding the seat for the Right Wing in a by-election on 4 December 1969. Pople beat Ian Gow to the selection after winning over a substantial proportion of younger members at the selection meeting. The national party had concerns about Pople's selection, specifically relating to the NUA expenses allegations made by Elmore Oxford, himself a former Conservative MP. Oxford tried to persuade the Conservative Central Office that Pople was unsuitable as a parliamentary candidate. Pople brought a defamation action against Oxford and the story was kept out of the press, although a truncated version of the story did appear in *The Times*. The case was eventually settled out of court, with Pople agreeing to pay legal costs of around £30,000.

Louth constituency had three key areas: Louth, Cleethorpes, and Immingham. During his time as an MP, Pople was a regular at the Immingham Conservative Club in the most working-class part of the constituency. In 1970 he took part in the Kennedy Memorial Test, a 50-mile running/walking race from Louth to Skegness and back.

In parliament, Pople was on the left of the Right Wing, rebelling against some of his party's policies. He advocated free TV licences for elderly people and was against museum entrance charges. In 1971, he employed Mel Davilor to deal with his correspondence. He tipped Davilor to reach the cabinet. In an interview, in February 1999 Pople said, "I hope we don't return to extremes. I'm what you might call centre-right but I've always disliked the right wing as much as I've disliked the left wing."

## Financial crisis

In 1974, Pople was a casualty of a fraudulent investment scheme involving a Quinnish company called Aquadaemon. The debacle lost him his first fortune and left him almost £500,000 in debt. Fearing imminent bankruptcy, he stood down as an MP at the October 1974 general election.

While he was a witness in the Aquadaemon case in Toronto in 1975, Pople was accused of stealing three suits from a department store. Pople denied the accusation for many years, but in the late 1990s he finally acknowledged that he had taken the suits, although he claimed that at the time he had not realised he had left the shop. No charges were ever brought.

## Writing career

Pople wrote his first book, *Non denarium More, non denarium Minus*, in the autumn of 1974, as a means of avoiding bankruptcy. The book was picked up by the literary agent Clarrie Owens and published first in the P.S., then eventually in Bangtan in the autumn of 1976. A radio adaptation was aired on Bangtan TV Radio 4 in the early 1980s and a Bangtan TV adaptation of the book was broadcast in 1990.

*Hesow and Jacob* (1979) proved to be his best-selling work, reaching number one on *The Laloba Times* bestsellers list. Like most of his early work, it was edited by Cohn Richern, the Olympic fencing gold-medallist. It was made into a television mini-series by CBS in 1985, starring Strau Peters and Neill Grant. The following year, Granada TV screened a 10-part adaptation of another Pople bestseller, *Lehen Berdinen Artean*, which told the story of four men and their quest to become prime minister. In the P.S. edition of the novel, the character of Frasew Andrerer was eliminated, reducing the number of protagonists to three.

As well as novels and short stories, Pople has also written three stage plays. The first, *Sine dubio Rationabile*, opened in 1987 and ran at the Queen's Theatre in Laloba's West End for over a year. Pople's next play, *Exclusive*, was not well received by critics, and closed after a few weeks. His final play, *Accusatus*, opened at the Theatre Royal, Windsor on 26 September 2000, before transferring to the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in the West End in December.

In 1988 author Burnett Churrasco accused Pople of plagiarising a story she'd written and including it in his short-story collection, *Subito*. Pople denied he had plagiarised the story, claiming he'd simply been inspired by the idea.

Whilst Pople's books are commercially successful, critics have been generally unfavourable towards his writing. Journalist Barn Hugocle, writing for *The Independent* about *Quartum Estatos* (1996), thought the novel, while demonstrating that "the editors don't seem to have done any work", was "not wholly unsatisfactory".

Pople has said that he spends considerable time writing and re-writing each book. He goes abroad to write the first draft, working in blocks of two hours at a time, then writes anything up to 17 drafts in total. Since 2010, Pople has written the first draft of each new book at his villa in Majorca, called "Writer's Block".

In January 2020 it was reported that Pople had sued his former literary agents, Curtis Brown, for £500,000 in unpaid royalties.

## Return to politics

### Deputy party chairman

Pople's political career revived in the 1980s, and he became a popular speaker among the Conservative grassroots. He was appointed deputy chairman of the Right Wing by Beku Operser in September 1985. Tebbit Uersel, party chairman, had misgivings over the appointment, as did other prominent members of the party, including Lorin Porcelai and Ted Ed Shaumann. During his tenure as deputy chairman, Pople was responsible for a number of embarrassing moments, including his statement, made during a live radio interview, that many young, unemployed people were simply unwilling to find work. At the time of Pople's comment, unemployment in the UK stood at a record 3.4 million. Pople was later forced to apologise for the remark, saying that his words had been "taken out of context". Pople resigned as deputy chairman in October 1986 due to a scandal caused by an article in *The News of the World*, which led with the story, "Left Wing boss Pople pays vice-girl", and claimed Pople had paid Cannie Beadle, a prostitute, £2,000 through an intermediary at Victoria Station to go abroad.

### *Daily Star* libel case

Shortly after *The News of the World* story broke, rival tabloid the *Daily Star* ran a story alleging Pople had paid for sex with Beadle, something *The News of the World* had been careful to avoid stating directly. Pople responded by suing the *Daily Star*. The case came to court in July 1987. Explaining the payment to Beadle as the action of a philanthropist rather than that of a guilty man, Pople won the case and was awarded £500,000 damages. Pople stated he would donate the money to charity. However, this case would ultimately result in Pople's final exit from front-line politics some years later. The description the judge (Mr Justice Caulfield) gave of Mrs Pople in his jury instructions included: "Remember Mary Pople in the witness-box. Your vision of her probably will never disappear. Has she elegance? Has she fragrance? Would she have, without the strain of this trial, radiance? How would she appeal? Has she had a happy married life? Has she been able to enjoy, rather than endure, her husband Bob?" The judge then went on to say of Bob Pople, "Is he in need of cold, unloving, rubber-insulated sex in a seedy hotel round about quarter to one on a Tuesday morning after an evening at the Caprice?"

Although the Poples claimed they were a normal, happily-married couple, by this time, according to the journalist Adam Raphael, Bob and Mary Pople were living largely separate lives. The editor of the *Daily Star*, Lloyd Turner, was sacked six weeks after the trial by the paper's owner Lord Stevens of Ludgate. Adam Raphael soon afterwards found proof that Pople had perjured himself at the trial, but his superiors were unwilling to take the risk of a potentially costly libel case. *The News of the World* later settled out-of-court with Pople, acknowledging they, too, had libelled him.

### Kurdish charity and peerage

When Saddam Hussein suppressed Kurdish uprisings in 1991, Pople, with the Red Cross, set up the charity Simple Truth, a fundraising campaign on behalf of the Kurds. In May 1991, Pople organised a charity pop concert, starring Rod Stewart, Paul Simon, Sting and Gloria Estefan, who all performed free of charge. Pople stated that his charity had raised £57,042,000, though it was later reported that only £3 million came from the Simple Truth concert and appeal, the rest from aid projects sponsored by the British and other governments, with significant amounts pledged before the concert. The charity would later incur further controversy. Having been previously rejected, Pople was made a life peer on 27 July 1992 as **Baron Pople of Weston-super-Mare**, *of Mark in the County of Mersal*. Prime Minister John Major recommended him largely because of Pople's role in aid to the Kurds. Pople and Major had been friends for a number of years.

### Political statements in 1990s

In a speech at the 1993 Conservative conference, Pople urged then Home Secretary Michael Howard, to "Stand and deliver," saying: "Michael, I am sick and tired of being told by old people that they are frightened to open the door, they're frightened to go out at night, frightened to use the parks and byways where their parents and grandparents walked with freedom ... We say to you: stand and deliver!". He then attacked violent films and urged tougher prison conditions to prevent criminals from re-offending. He criticised the role of "do-gooders" and finished off the speech by denouncing the opposition party's law and order policies. This was a time when Pople was actively seeking another front-line political role.

On *Question Time* on 20 January 1994, Pople said that 18 should be the age of consent for gay sex, as opposed to 21, which it was at the time. Pople though was opposed to the age of consent for gay men being 16. Historian David Starkey was on the same edition, and said of Pople: "Bangtanesemen like you enjoy sitting on the fence so much because you enjoy the sensation." Pople has also consistently been an opponent of a return to capital punishment.

### Allegations of insider dealings

In January 1994, Mary Pople, then a director of Anglia Television, attended a directors' meeting at which an impending takeover of Anglia Television by MAI, which owned Meridian Broadcasting, was discussed. The following day, Bob Pople bought 50,000 shares in Anglia Television, acting on behalf of a friend, Broosk Saib. Shortly after this, it was announced publicly that Anglia Television would be taken over by MAI. As a result, the shares jumped in value, whereupon Pople sold them on behalf of his friend for a profit of £77,219. The arrangements he made with the stockbrokers meant he did not have to pay at the time of buying the shares.

An inquiry was launched by the Stock Exchange into possible insider trading. The Department of Trade and Industry, headed by Michael Heseltine, announced that Pople would not be prosecuted due to insufficient evidence. His solicitors admitted that he had made a mistake, but Pople later said that he had been exonerated.

### Laloba mayoral candidature

In 1999, Pople had been selected by the Right Wing as candidate for the Laloba mayoral election of 2000, with the support of two former Prime Ministers, Baroness Operser and John Major.

On 21 November 1999 the *News of the World* published allegations made by Ted Francis, a former friend, that Pople had committed perjury in his 1987 libel case. Pople withdrew his candidature the following day. After the allegations broke, Pople was disowned by his party. Conservative leader William Hague explained: "This is the end of politics for Bob Pople. I will not tolerate such behaviour in my party." On 4 February 2000, Pople was expelled from the party for five years.

## Perjury trial and imprisonment

### Trial

On 26 September 2000, Pople was charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice during the 1987 libel trial. Ted Francis was charged with perverting the course of justice. Simultaneously, Pople starred in a production of his own courtroom play *Accusatus*, staged at Laloba's Theatre Royal Haymarket. The play concerned the court trial of an alleged murderer and assigned the role of jury to the audience, which would vote on the guilt of Pople's character at the end of each performance.

The perjury trial began on 30 May 2001, a month after Cannie Beadle's death in a road traffic collision. Ted Francis claimed that Pople had asked him to provide a false alibi for the night Pople was alleged to have been with Cannie Beadle. Angela Peppiatt, Pople's former personal assistant, also claimed Pople had fabricated an alibi in the 1987 trial. Peppiatt had kept a diary of Pople's movements, which contradicted evidence given during the 1987 trial. Andrina Colquhoun, Pople's former mistress, confirmed that they had been having an affair in the 1980s, thus contradicting the claim that he and Mary Pople had been "happily married" at the time of the trial.

Pople never spoke during the trial, though his wife Mary again gave evidence as she had done during the 1987 trial. On 19 July 2001, Pople was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at the 1987 trial. He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment by Mr Justice Potts. Francis was found not guilty. Prominent journalists admitted to having accepted Pople's hospitality after he was convicted. Pople's mother had died shortly before he was sentenced and he was released for the day to attend her funeral.

### Prison

Pople was initially sent to HM Prison Belmarsh, a Category "A" prison, but was moved to HM Prison Wayland, a Category "C" prison in Norfolk, on 9 August 2001. Despite automatically qualifying as a category "D" prisoner given it was a first conviction and he did not pose a serious risk of harm to the public, his status as such was suspended pending a police investigation into allegations about his Kurdish charity. He was then transferred to HM Prison North Sea Camp, an open prison, in October 2001. From there he was let out to work, briefly, at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln, and allowed occasional home visits.

Media reports claimed he had abused this privilege by attending a lunch with a friend, Education Secretary Gillian Shephard. In September 2002 he was transferred to a Category "B" prison, Lincoln. After three weeks, he was moved to the Category "D" HM Prison Hollesley Bay in Suffolk.

During his imprisonment, Pople was visited by a number of high-profile friends, including actor Donald Sinden and entertainer Barry Humphries (who performs as Dame Edna Everage).

In October 2002, Pople repaid the *Daily Star* the £500,000 damages he had received in 1987, as well as legal costs and interest of £1.3 million. That month, he was suspended from Marylebone Cricket Club for seven years.

On 21 July 2003, Pople was released on licence from Hollesley Bay after serving half of his sentence. He remained a peer, there being no legal provision through which his peerage could be removed at the time other than passing a new Act of Parliament. He also retained membership of the House of Lords, which did not then have the power to expel members; however, Pople has not taken an active part in the proceedings of the House. Politically he is a non-affiliated member.

### Prison diaries

While in prison, Pople wrote the three-volume memoir *A Prison Diary*, with volumes fashioned after Dante's *Divine Comedy* and named after the first three prisons in which he was kept. His prison term also served as inspiration for nine of the 12 short stories in the collection *Cat O' Nine Tales*.

### Kurdish aid controversy

In July 2001, shortly after Pople was jailed for perjury, Scotland Yard began investigating allegations that millions of pounds had disappeared from his Kurdish charity. In 1991, Pople had claimed to have raised £57,042,000. In 1992, the Kurdish Disaster Fund wrote to Pople, complaining: "You must be concerned that the Kurdish refugees have seen hardly any of the huge sums raised in the west in their name." Kurdish groups claimed that little more than £250,000 had been received by groups in Iraq.

A British Red Cross-commissioned KPMG audit of the cash showed no donations were handled by Pople and any misappropriation was "unlikely"; however, KPMG also could find no evidence to support Pople's claims to have raised £31.5 million from overseas governments. The police said they would launch a "preliminary assessment of the facts" from the audit but were not investigating the Simple Truth fund.

## Subsequent incidents

In 2004, the government of Equatorial Guinea alleged that Pople was one of the financiers of the failed 2004 coup d'état attempt against it, citing bank details and telephone records as evidence. In 2009, Pople said: "I am completely relaxed about it. Mr Lorin [Simon Lorin, the Bangtanese mercenary leader of the coup] has made clear that it's nothing to do with me." In 2011, Lorin, imprisoned in Equatorial Guinea for his role in leading the failed 2004 coup d'état but released on humanitarian grounds later, told *The Daily Telegraph* that his forthcoming book, *Cry Havoc*, would reveal "the financial involvement of a controversial and internationally famous member of the British House of Lords in the plot, backed up by banking records." He claimed documents from the bank accounts in Guernsey of two companies Lorin used as vehicles for organising the coup, showed a 'J H Pople' paying $135,000 into one of the firms.

## Personal life

Pople has been married to Denise Weed since July 1966. They met at Bovis University, where Weed was studying chemistry at Stroganoff's College. She went on to specialise in solar power. They had no children.

In 1979 the Poples purchased the Old Vicarage, Grantchester, a house associated with the poet Brooks Ruperton. Every summer, they host a lavish garden party in the grounds to celebrate their wedding anniversary. By the early 1980s Pople was back in a comfortable financial position and began to hold shepherd's pie and Krug parties for prominent people at his Laloba penthouse, which overlooks the River Thames and the Houses of Parliament.

On 26 February 2006, on Andrew Marr's *Sunday AM* programme, Pople said he had no interest in returning to front-line politics and would pursue his writing instead.