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Some saw him as a saviour who would lead Britain into an exciting new age
THERE'S no fool like an old fool. At least, that's the conclusion some will draw upon hearing the news that Sir Clive Sinclair, the 69-year-old, bald, bespectacled inventor of the Sinclair C5, has married a 33-year-old former lapdancer.
But with an IQ of 159, millions of pounds in the bank, lifetime Mensa membership and a cult-like status as one of the most famous British inventors of the 20th century, Sinclair does not, it must be said, seem your archetypal idiot. Then again, he did create the C5 - a plastic, snail-paced vehicle, a bit like a pram and Robin Reliant hybrid - and nearly ruined his business, reputation and entire future in the process.
Sinclair came from an inventive family. His grandfather, George Sinclair, was a naval architect involved in the creation of the paravane, a minesweeping device, while his father, Bill, was a mechanical engineer with his own machine tools business. Sinclair was born in 1940, not long after the outbreak of the Second World War, near Richmond in Surrey. He and his mother were evacuated to Devon, and their home in Richmond was later bombed.
When Sinclair was in his teens, his father's business ran into financial difficulties resulting in Sinclair having to move school several times. For the shy, geeky boy who was a whizz at maths (he took A-levels in physics, pure maths, and applied maths) and felt awkward with other children his own age, it was a difficult time. Sinclair immersed himself into the world of adults, spending time with his family and taking jobs at electronics companies during the holidays.
Instead of going to university - an obvious choice for someone with such obscure and focused A-levels - Sinclair went into business, selling miniature electronic kits by mail-order. He even found time to write books with snappy titles such as Practical...