At first sight, the Curzon Street offices of Bell Pottinger Private are everything a conspiracy theorist could hope for. Next door, guarded by uniformed police officers with machine guns, squats the immense embassy of Saudi Arabia, a country with which the controversial PR firm's even more controversial chairman, Tim Bell, has had decades of opaque, often defence-related dealings. Beyond the embassy is the rest of Mayfair, where businesses are discreet, ethics are flexible, and rich people with reputations to upgrade are in increasingly plentiful supply.
In the lobby of Bell Pottinger, there are cream leather benches for visitors. The day's newspapers hang from clips on the wall. The implication is that Bell, who has worked in PR or advertising since 1959, can get you or your company or government into them – or quietly arrange the opposite. "We keep a lot of people out of the media," says James Henderson, the firm's chief executive.
From the lobby, a tiny lift whisks you up to Bell's top-floor office. It is a long corner room, with a row of windows looking out over Mayfair's wine-red and bone-white rooftops. In the centre of the room is a large desk, almost in the shape of a quotation mark. Along its outer curve are a few chairs for clients. On the inner, there is an oldish computer, two telephones, two used coffee cups, a half-full ashtray and Bell himself.
Lord Bell of Belgravia, who was knighted by his longstanding client and political soulmate Margaret Thatcher in 1990, is 72. But he is still working full-time, and still looks like an old-fashioned PR man from central casting: slicked-back hair, assertive tie, tailored shirt, quick smile. He talks in a half-gravelly, half-chocolatey voice, and instantly drops your first name into his quick sentences. "He is an icon in the business," says Mark Borkowski, another British PR veteran and a historian of the industry. "A lot of people have tried to write his obituary, but they underestimate his steely determination. He has a very powerful network, contacts all over the world. Bell Pottinger are a formidable multinational. For many, many