Unscripted

A racy tale of big money, bigger egos and #MeToo disgrace … Like a real-life blueprint for the TV show Succession * The Times *Jaw-dropping … an epic tale of toxic wealth and greed populated by connivers and manipulators. – Editor’s Choice * New York Times *Sex and power were the abiding obsessions of the colourful media mogul Sumner Redstone, whose life and career only became more bizarre as he aged and family and friends sought to get their hands on his empire. The saga helped inspire the HBO series Succession; this deeply reported account shows the truth was, if anything, stranger. * Financial Times, Best Books of 2023 *A real-life Succession … A deeply reported account of one of the trashiest episodes in recent business history … Masterful. * Financial Times *Has a business book ever made you blush? … With soap-operatic twists and turns, Unscripted makes the amped-up historical fiction of Babylon feel downright chaste by comparison * Washington Post *

James B. Stewart is a columnist for the New York Times and a professor at Columbia Journalism School. He is the author of books including Deep State, Tangled Webs, Heart of a Soldier, Blind Eye, Blood Sport and Den of Thieves. In 1988, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the stock market crash and insider trading.

Rachel Abrams was a media reporter for the New York Times and is now a senior producer and reporter for the television series The New York Times Presents. In 2018, she was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for reporting that exposed sexual harassment and misconduct.