Felix Dennis interviews (17)
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Felix Dennis
Daily Telegraph
by Rowena Mason
2 December 2008
"I'm Felix, I'm 61 and I love printing presses," a voice bellows, followed by a laugh so raucous the whole kitchen rattles.
This is not a Workaholics Anonymous meeting, but magazine entrepreneur Felix Dennis declaring his "passion for ink on paper" in the age of digital media.
In most recent interviews, the owner of lads' mag Maxim and comic Viz seemed to want to talk only about poetry and his craze for planting trees – anything apart from the business empire that put him into the list of the UK's 100 richest people with a personal fortune of £750m.
However, this morning, the publisher greets me in a dapper suit in the spotless kitchen of his flat, above the Soho offices of Dennis Publishing.
There are still irreverent touches: the tortoiseshell Harry Potter bifocals, overgrown, frizzy hair and the spluttering chain-smoking. But can this really be the man who earlier this year boozily told a journalist that he killed a man? It is a claim Dennis denied the next morning as "drunken hogwash". He now insists the notorious excesses of his former playboy lifestyle have faded away.
"My vices have been legion," Dennis proclaims. "Now the narcotics have gone and so have all the wonderful ladies of easy virtue. It's a catalogue of misery, but at least I still smoke and walk around in my underwear." ...
Felix Dennis
www.Scotsman.com
by Jim Gilchrist
6 October 2008
Martyr of the counterculture turned multimillionaire, Felix Dennis is now happiest writing poetry, says Jim Gilchrist
Felix Dennis
The Guardian
by Deany Judd
3 October 2008
Felix Dennis on the teacher who sparked his career and the mogul who guided it
Felix Dennis
The Guardian
by William Leith
2 October 2008
The last time publisher Felix Dennis gave an interview, he said he killed someone. How do you top that? With a national poetry tour - and a lot of free wine.
For the record, Felix Dennis says he didn't kill a man, as he claimed in a newspaper interview published earlier this year. The notorious magazine publisher and 101st richest person in the country, who is now a poet, says that he and his interviewer, Ginny Dougary, got very drunk, and he started talking rubbish, and made up a story about pushing a man over a cliff 25 years ago. They were so drunk, he says, that "Ginny was carried into the car. I know, because I helped my chauffeur. We were both completely plastered. Do drunks talk trash? Then you have the answer." He blames the wine, and thyroid medication. Dougary, meanwhile, has written that she "had more fun with [Dennis] than in almost any other interview".
I arrive at Dennis's compound in the Warwickshire countryside (he has several others, in New England, the Caribbean, and so on). It takes me a while to find him. He isn't in the main house, Dorsington Manor. Perhaps, I'm told, he is in Highfield, a nautically themed building on the estate. So I go to Highfield. Inside are, among other things, a swimming pool, a hot tub, and an aquarium. ...
*Felix Dennis's Homeless in My Heart is published by Ebury Press at £12.99. The Did I Mention the Free Wine? tour runs until October 21. Details: www.felixdennis.com
Felix Dennis
Business Week
by Jon Fine
29 May 2008
How to Get Rich—and Notorious.
Bad-boy publishing mogul Felix Dennis shares his secrets with us. Or does he?
Felix Dennis
The Times
by Ginny Dougary
2 April 2008
Ginny Dougary's explosive interview that made headlines around the world: "Maxim publisher Felix Dennis: 'I've killed a man'. The Oz trial defendant who is now a billionaire publisher with an empire that includes Maxim and The Week talks about poetry, whores, his past addiction to crack cocaine and the time he killed a man - a confession he later retracts...
Felix Dennis
The Independent
by Anna Hoyles
10 March 2008
'Down with the nanny state'. The 5-minute Interview: Felix Dennis, publisher and author
Felix Dennis
AccessInterviews.com
by Rob McGibbon
17 December 2007
An in-depth filmed interview with out-spoken publishing tycoon Felix Dennis
Felix Dennis
BBC Radio 4, Desert Island Discs
by Kirsty Young
12 August 2007
Kirsty Young’s castaway this week is the publisher Felix Dennis.
He blossomed among the flower power generation, finding fame as one of the defendants in the notorious Oz Magazine obscenity trial. It fired his loathing of the establishment but instead of dropping out he opted in and beat them at their own game.
For the past thirty years his talent has been spotting a niche in the magazine market and launching a title to fill it – his success has made him one of the richest men in Britain.
For many years his life was one of addiction and excess – but latterly the only thing he feels compelled to do each day is write poetry and he’s become one of a very rare breed – a best selling poet
Felix Dennis
Lusso
by C.J West
8 August 2007
Felix Dennis Interviewed on Forrest of Dennis and Dennis Publishing.
Felix Dennis has a lot of everything. He has a lot of money (so much, in fact, he can’t count it, but let’s say £700M, give or take the odd £50M), from a lot of publications (more than 50 magazines and websites in UK and America), earned over the last 30 years with a lot of backstory (the crack cocaine addiction isn’t the interesting bit, it’s the fact he got himself off it, cold turkey, on his own, in 6 weeks, flat).
Felix Dennis
The Independent
by Ian Burrell
6 October 2006
Felix Dennis: Regrets? He's had a few...
You don't amass £715m without taking a few risks. Ian Burrell meets the evil genius of UK media
Felix Dennis
Press Gazette
by Rob McGibbon
28 September 2006
Felix Dennis discusses money, poetry and fornicating.
Felix Dennis
Director
by David Woodward
1 September 2006
Felix Dennis is very rich. Exactly how rich is open to debate, but he’s not going to quibble over the odd million here or there. Dennis has been building his publishing empire for the best part of 40 years. He’s squandered more cash in a single year than many of us will earn in a lifetime. He has the houses, the cars, the boats and planes, the wine cellar, the library of first edition novels, the fine art, the sprawling Soho pied à terre—and the brash, thunderous voice of a man who is used to getting things done his way.
The door to Dennis’s office is wide open, allowing his words to boom out into reception and beyond. One of his managers appears to be on the receiving end of both barrels: “I don’t want to hear it can’t be done, because they’re already doing it!” he cries.
Felix Dennis
BBC, Radio 4, Bespoken Word
by Mister Gee
7 July 2006
Felix Dennis is one of Britain’s best known entrepreneurs, publishing magazines such as Maxim, Auto Express and Viz. Less famously he is a leading performance poet.
Mr Gee went to meet Felix Dennis at his home:
When I was first told that I was on my way to meet one of the U.K.'s most successful performance poets, I was curious, and when I then heard that he was also reputed to be the 65th richest man in the country, I was indeed intrigued Performing poetry has never really been the most lucrative of professions and for many of us the "credit crunch" began the moment we put pen to paper!
So there I was (with the production team) roaming through town looking for one particular residence within the heart of London's West End. Inside, the walls were adorned with an array of iconic images ranging from Bruce Lee to Felix the Cat. On the top floor, I found myself being greeted by a Felix of an entirely different variety: Mr Felix Dennis, the co-editor of Oz magazine, a successful publisher and now? .... a performance poet.
We sat down, exchanged polite formalities, and then proceeded to have an in-depth discussion on: life, the universe and everything. This was interspersed by recitals of Felix's poems:
Felix Dennis
CBS - 60 Minutes
by Bob Simon
23 June 2004
Maxim's 'Dennis The Menace'. Publisher Is 21st Century Version Of Hugh Hefner.
(CBS) Some consider Felix Dennis, the publisher of racy men’s magazines like Maxim, to be the 21st Century version of Hugh Hefner.
His competitors, however, think of him simply as “Dennis the Menace.” That’s because his magazines are quickly turning the rarified world of publishing upside down. He’s forcing his rivals — GQ, Esquire and others — to become younger, hipper and, well, sexier.
Dennis is a man of gargantuan appetites. He’s completely irreverent and totally unapologetic.
Perhaps the best way to introduce you to Dennis is through the pages of Maxim, a men’s lifestyle magazine whose motto is “To hell with political correctness … It’s time to party!” Correspondent Bob Simon visited Dennis at his home in London last fall. ...
