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Hello and welcome to Women of Balls, where I, Katie Balls, speak to today's trailblazers.

My guest today was born into a Jewish family in Watford, but has since earned a reputation as a globe trotter.

She attended the independent North London Collegiate School in Edgeware before her mother emigrated the family

to Canada. There she learnt to be independent at a young age, moving out to the family home at age 14.

She studied philosophy in English at the University of Toronto before embarking on a career in journalism,

first as a presenter for CBC TV, later becoming the first female editor of the Toronto Sun,

before coming to the UK where she enjoyed a career as a prolific columnist for The Telegraph and the Sunday Times.

Her personal life has also proved a ripe subject in the press from time to time.

She has been married four times, three times divorced.

Her fourth marriage is to the former newspaper proprietor Conrad Black.

In the 90s and early naughties, the pair were dubbed in The Spectator as London's most glamorous power couple,

and Lord and Lady Black earned a reputation for their extravagant lifestyle.

She said her extravagance knows no bounds,

and the high-profile social set that attended their parties,

which included the likes of Michael Bloomberg, Donald Trump and

Tina Brown. But as she documents in her new memoir friends and enemies, this had all changed by

2007 when Black was jailed in America on charges of fraud and obstruction. As she documents

in the book, she quickly discovered who her friends were

and who were definitely not. Reflecting on that period, she said, losing status, money, reputation

and security is a shock when it happens all within a few days. The feeling of falling down

the elevator shaft is impossible to capture. And gradually you realize falling, falling,

...