{"id":144837,"date":"2025-09-18T06:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T06:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/144837\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T06:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T06:04:10","slug":"im-never-going-to-get-back-on-a-bike-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/144837\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m never going to get back on a bike in London\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

My wife, Thelma, and I live in Mill Hill, northwest London, in a five-bedroom detached family house over three floors, with a decent-sized garden. It\u2019s located toward the bottom of a cul-de-sac with about ten houses on it. The house itself is modern. It was built in the 1960s. We\u2019ve lived here since 1980.<\/p>\n

Have you renovated much?<\/p>\n

We decided to modernise it about ten to 15 years ago. We had it pretty much levelled and rebuilt. We added an extra floor at the top for the grandchildren. It has various games and a football pitch. Now that there are five of them, aged eight to 16, this has become the house that they all meet at to play football and have fun.<\/p>\n

\"Shops<\/p>\n

The Littners live in Mill Hill in northwest London<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

Do you have any other homes?<\/p>\n

We have had a home in Marbella for 16 years. We go as frequently as we can as the weather is superb. I feel very safe in Marbella. The area is family-orientated without any aggression or unpleasantness. Our apartment is in a purpose-built luxury development right on the beach. It\u2019s in a block of 70 apartments with swimming pools, gyms \u2014 all the amenities you could wish for.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

The couple also have a home in Marbella, Spain<\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

You travel a lot for business. Do you enjoy this aspect of your work?<\/p>\n

I used to travel extensively throughout Europe and in the US on business. Having been a pupil at the Lyc\u00e9e Fran\u00e7ais Charles de Gaulle de Londres, and being bilingual, I spent a lot of time in northern France as chairman of several companies. This led to Alan Sugar<\/a> asking me to sort things out at Amstrad International in Paris, and then in Madrid and Upper Jutland. I also worked all over for the banks, turning around investments that were failing.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Lord Sugar: I told my staff, \u2018Get back to work. If you don\u2019t like it, sod off!\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019re pretty hands-on with work, then?<\/p>\n

The nature of the job is all-embracing. I\u2019d work ridiculous hours and expect everyone around me to do the same. The idea is to save a company and turn it around and exit, providing enhanced shareholder value. But the rule I had when I was in Europe was that I would come home every Friday and go back on Sunday. This was more problematic when my work took me to Brazil, the USA and Canada but my wife would occasionally join me in the Americas.<\/p>\n

How did you tackle the work-life balance?<\/p>\n

For me, it was pretty much all about work, so there wasn\u2019t much balance. The great good fortune I\u2019ve got is to have a fantastic wife, who looked after the home while I was away. She picked up my two sons from school and took them to football matches, among a whole host of other activities. I was more or less a weekend parent.<\/p>\n

\"Thelma<\/p>\n

With his wife, Thelma<\/p>\n

DAVE BENETT\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

You had a life-changing bicycle accident in 2021. What happened?<\/p>\n

The bicycle incident was a completely freak accident. I bought electric bikes for my children during Covid and we went to the woods and other local beauty spots. When they returned to work I decided to carry on that lifestyle. On this one occasion the rear mudguard caught the wheel and I was thrown into the street. Fortunately the vehicle right behind me happened to be an ambulance and the crew took me to St Mary\u2019s trauma unit, where the excellent surgeons operated on me that night. It meant a long period of rehabilitation and I was very lucky to keep my leg. I don\u2019t have a limp now but I\u2019m not going to be running marathons anytime soon.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Alan Sugar, when he was owner of Tottenham Hotspur, and Littner, the club\u2019s chief executive, in 1996<\/p>\n

PETER TRIEVNOR FOR THE TIMES<\/p>\n

How did you cope with going from working hard to convalescing?<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re damaged like that, you don\u2019t think about work, you think about getting better. Many years ago, when I was the chief executive of Tottenham Hotspur, I had a very bad cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma<\/a>, and was given six months to live. I spent a considerable amount of time in hospital over several years so this wasn\u2019t my first experience of being unhinged by illness.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Claude Littner: \u2018I went skiing in my swimming trunks in the Alps\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Have you got back in the saddle?<\/p>\n

We have electric bikes in Marbella as we\u2019re lucky enough to have cycle tracks where there are absolutely no cars. It\u2019s not very taxing, just very enjoyable, and we get some fresh air. But I\u2019m never going to get back on a bike again in London.<\/p>\n

Are there any projects that particularly excite you at present?<\/p>\n

For quite a few years now I have been a trustee of Blood Cancer UK. I\u2019m very proud to be part of this charity, which raises money for research into curing blood cancers, of which there are a hundred types. I\u2019m always happy to visit schools and universities to talk about its work. I am also a visiting professor at the University of West London\u2019s Claude Littner Business School, where I speak to the very academically gifted students about the world of business. I was an undergraduate and postgraduate student at the University of West London. I was hugely proud when they named this facility after me.<\/p>\n

\"Karren<\/p>\n

Karren Brady, Sugar and Littner in the BBC1 show The Apprentice<\/p>\n

Do you have a favourite room at home?<\/p>\n

I spend most of my time in my study because I\u2019m never short of things to do. That said, I\u2019m easily distracted by social media and get caught up if something interesting appears on Reuters or wherever. Before I know it, it\u2019s lunchtime and I\u2019ve not done a single thing on my list.<\/p>\n

To find out more about Blood Cancer UK or to donate to the charity visit bloodcancer.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My wife, Thelma, and I live in Mill Hill, northwest London, in a five-bedroom detached family house over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-144837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}