Business Diary: September 6

For decades, Doug Liversidge has been a respected figure in Sheffield’s business community, holding down numerous roles at forging, steel and tool companies. He was proud to become Master Cutler in 1998. It’s been said that if you cut him in half you would find the word “Sheffield” running through him like a stick of rock.

Now he’s written a novel which will raise cash for a very worthy cause.

His book – The Storm Bringer – takes place in Libya and the US and centres on the murky world of international terrorism.

Diary managed to get hold of a copy, and it’s a thumping good read.

Here’s what the blurb on the back of the book has to say: “Saida Sanussi has everything, wealth beauty, success and love. But when an accidental shooting destroys it all, her life has only one purpose – revenge. She is drawn into the secret world of international terrorism. And soon she will be the one called on to unleash the ultimate weapon, the primeval force of nature.”

The story takes the reader from the deserts of Libya to middle America, which is about to be shaken by “unimaginable” violence.

Libya, of course, couldn’t be more topical at the moment and Mr Liversidge knows the country well.

Mr Liversidge left school at 15 with five O-levels to his name. At the age of 16, he went to work at the English Steel Corporation as a laboratory assistant.

By the time he was 20, he had managed to gain a scholarship to university – Sheffield, naturally – where he read metallurgy, studying the properties of metals and their alloys.

He then joined the Army where he rose to the rank of Second Lieutenant. This, it seems, helped to inspire his novel.

“I was serving out in Libya as head of desert navigation,” he recalled. “It was fantastic. It changed my life. I had gone from a council estate in Sheffield to serving as an Army officer in Libya. Military service was excellent for me.”

In his introduction, Mr Liversidge says: “In the Libya I knew, as a British officer on military service, King Idris still reigned and Gadaffi was no more than a corporal in the Libyan army. But even then, the tribes of the east in Cyrenacia had a fear and dislike of the tribes in the western half of the country. It has taken nearly half a century for these feelings to surface into a civil war that no-one can win. Gadaffi and his sons admired much about the West, not least its lifestyle, but any hopes of better relations are now extinguished. All that remains is a fight to the finish in a country once more torn by war.”

Proceeds from sales will go towards Charlie’s Trust, a charity that helps disadvantaged children. It was set up in memory of Doug’s grandson, who was killed in a car accident in 2008, a few days before his eighth birthday.

China suits you, sir

The Chinese market can be a tough nut to crack for an outsider but one Yorkshire businessman found a rather unconventional way of persuading the Chinese to do business with him.

Neil Worthington, managing director of Holmfirth graphic design company Worthington Brown, revealed his unorthodox technique to Diary.

“Design is free in China, they don’t tend to buy it,” he said. “So trying to sell them design is quite difficult.”

He added: “It can be difficult to deal directly with Chinese-owned companies – you have to be a CEO or a chairman before they will consider seeing you. In the early days I pretended I had a knighthood to secure one meeting.”

Bat touched by history

AMONG the prized possessions of Andrew Cleaves, the managing director of National Express UK Coaches, is a cricket bat which has been touched by history.

Diary discovered that Mr Cleaves was an avid cricket fan when he stopped off in Leeds as part of a round-Britain tour.

Mr Cleaves owns a bat which carries the signatures of the English cricketers who embarked on the notorious “Bodyline” tour of 1932/33.

On this tour, Harold Larwood’s ferocious bowling left Australia’s batsmen bruised and battered and helped England to a 4-1 series victory under their captain Douglas Jardine.

Mr Cleaves managed to obtain a bat which had the signatures of Larwood, Jardine and the rest of the England team who won the Ashes.

However, he was intrigued to see the name of Jack Hobbs on the bat. Hobbs was a master batsman, who as every cricket fan knows, retired from Test cricket in 1930. After conducting his own research, Mr Cleaves discovered that Hobbs had gone on the Bodyline tour, but in his new role as a cricket journalist.

Doubtless, Mr Cleaves had the chance to regale many cricket buffs with anecdotes during his epic journey around Britain.