Faking It: from bookie’s son to baron: the incredible life of Brian Leese

He changed his name many times, deceived everyone he met, distanced himself from his parents and reinvented himself as an Irish baron. This is ‘Faking It’, the astonishing true story of author Mandy Moore’s relative Brian Leese. Brian began as an ordinary schoolboy from London, became a Mormon in Salt Lake City, married an Indian princess in Ischia, Italy, had bisexual affairs and partied in Rome with European royalty and famous writers. After divorcing, he married a Finnish heiress, living a life of luxury in an Irish mansion, all the while lying about his education, upbringing and parentage, and portraying himself as an Irish baron. He wrote books on Irish genealogy, architecture and history but his life was funded by horseracing crime, Nazis in the Bahamas, and American mobsters.