To understand today's world - its media, its politics and its culture wars - you must first understand Rupert Murdoch. Across continents and decades, presidents and prime ministers sought his favour and feared his wrath. But Murdoch's real achievement is how he built that influence in the first place.

At twenty-one, he inherited two failing Australian newspapers after his father's sudden death left the family in debt, with rivals circling. Deal by deal, he fought his way from Adelaide to London to New York, buying ailing newspapers that his established competitors were convinced would fail. Tenacious yet perennially unsatisfied, with each win he wagered more, until he had assembled a globe-spanning empire that gave him extraordinary influence over politics, culture and the news agenda.

Not all risks paid off. In 1990, he came within hours of bankruptcy under a mountain of debt. He bet on the wrong internet giant. The phone-hacking scandal made him a pariah. His children became billionaires, but not without a bitter succession struggle. Yet Murdoch found a way through every crisis - his career both a masterclass and a cautionary tale.

Combining deep reporting with hundreds of interviews with those closest to him, Empire of Influence tells the story of Rupert Murdoch's life in full for the first time, revealing the man behind the empire and the century he helped shape.