Dim student, lost rally driver, failed accountant, self-made millionaire, inherited peer - and now alleged coup plotter. The life and times of Mark Thatcher, the son of the former British prime minister, bears more resemblance to a novel by his mother's friend and former jailbird Jeffrey Archer than the respectable ways of a scion of the British establishment.
But then Margaret Thatcher's son and heir has never been that far from controversy.
Arrested at his South African mansion, Thatcher, 51, now faces up to 15 years' jail if found guilty of involvement in a mercenary-led plot to oust the president of Equatorial Guinea, a tiny oil-rich West African state.
It could be worse, apparently. As Britain'sSun gleefully reported, opponents of Equatorial Guinea's dictatorial president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, claim he eats the testicles of his political enemies to boost his sex life.
Thatcher has denied the charges of bankrolling the coup and providing logistic support. He remains under house arrest in Cape Town, has been ordered to surrender his passport and will appear in court again on November 25.
His 78-year-old mother, Baroness Thatcher, still recovering from the death last year of her husband, Denis, is said to be devastated.
Mother and son are very close. She once said he was so charming he "could sell snow to the Eskimoes and sand to the Arabs".
But Lady Thatcher's biographer, Charles Moore, said she "always worried, and she worries still", that her political career had a negative impact on Mark and his twin, Carol. But for years the greater risk has been that Thatcher's business dealings - and the liberal use of the Thatcher name - would embarrass her.
Thatcher left Harrow private school with just three O-levels and a string of nicknames, among them Thickie. And to Simon Mann, the alleged coup plot leader and ex-SAS captain, Thatcher is better known as Scratcher. Another of the alleged plotters is called Smelly.
After school, Thatcher, who is now reportedly worth between £40 million ($102 million) and £60 million, joined the accountancy firm Touche Ross, but failed his exams three times. Careers followed in stockbroking, jewellery sales, the Asian business world and motor racing.
As his mother rose to prominence he stayed largely out of the limelight - until 1982, when he famously got lost in the Sahara desert for several days while competing in the Paris-Dakar car rally.
He was eventually rescued by the Algerian Army, but not before making his mother cry publicly for the first time in her premiership.