My near miss with an enraged Sir Philip Green

The book describes Sir Philip’s explosive temper - but what happened next was so bizarre it made our conversation more farcical than intimidating.

“I will withdraw my support from Jewish Care and Norwood,” he said. “If you don’t take it down and apologise.”

Baffled, I asked what affiliation he thought the JC had with either charity, beyond being Jewish institutions, and why he felt the way to get what he wanted was to speak like that.

I made him angrier and angrier as I repeatedly asked him to confirm he had said it, each time I paused after he ranted and said: “Can I just confirm that you are threatening to withdraw support from Jewish Care and Norwood for something the Jewish Chronicle did?”

His temper got worse. “You’re a smart arse aren’t you?” he asked after I had repeated his words back to him a few times.

Eventually, he seemed to twig what I was getting at: the billionaire owner of Topshop, who routinely rings journalists to swear and rant at them, had forgotten to first ask if our conversation could be off the record.

He urged me to “draw a line” under our conversation and pass on a message to the editor that he wanted a chat about the article and kept urging me to not repeat the details of what he had said. I said only that I’d pass the message on.

Sir Philip’s calls with journalists are, I later learned, legendary. I heard about one journalist who deliberately writes vaguely unflattering minor stories so that, when Sir Philip inevitably rings to rant, he can ask him about what he actually wants to write.

The Guardian reported he once said one of their journalists couldn’t write because he was a “f***ing Irishman”. Mr Shah claims Sir Philip once threatened to throw him out of a window.

My encounter was comparatively mild. But months later I still cannot get over its absurdity.