Some of the surpising and shocking facts that emerged while the book was being researched.
Facts and Figures (...continued)
The latest must-have is a luxury submarine - 100 have been sold already. A mid-size model is the £13 million Seattle 1000, a three story-high vessel with five staterooms, five bathrooms, two kitchens, a gym and a wine cellar.
Since 2001, 17 of the 22 donors who have parted with more than £100,000 have been given some kind of honour, while 80p out of every pound of New Labour donations is given by people who were later ennobled.
In the US the richest 0.25% percent of the population make 80% of all political donations.
Of the 12 million weekday national newspapers sold each day in England, 9 million are produced by companies owned, run or controlled by multi-millionaires or billionaires.
The Charities Aid Foundation found that the wealthiest ten percent of UK income earners gave just 0.7% of their household expenditure to charity while the poorest ten percent allocate 3% of theirs.
Carlos Slim, who has managed to appropriate £26 billion with his Mexican conglomerate which snatched the country's telecom service when it was privatised. His wealth is increasing at the rate of £1.35 million an hour.
