MR. FIVE PER CENT is a biography about the greatest dealmaker and the richest man in the world in the 20th century, Calouste Gulbenkian, known as 'Mr Five Percent' for owning 5% of most of the oil in the world. For half a century everyone from the Ottoman Sultans to Joseph Stalin sought his advice on oil policy, the latter rewarding him with Rembrandts from Russia's Hermitage Museum. Today the companies that Gulbenkian created - including Shell and Total - are household names, while the international agreements he brokered still shape the fortunes of Iraq, Venezuela and other oil-producing countries across the globe. Given unprecedented access to Gulbenkian's private papers, Jonathan Conlin pieces together the many lives of a powerful recluse: deal-maker and financier, but also diplomat, art collector and philanthropist, jealous husband and domineering father. This detailed account reveals the effects of Gulbenkian's restless life on those whose interests he sought to serve, as well as on the Foundation which remains his greatest legacy.