Early Life
Massow was born Ivan Field in Brighton, East Sussex. His relationships with his father and subsequently his stepfather were not good; as a boy he ended up being cared for by social services, before being adopted as a pre-teenager by a Mr John Massow. Commenting on his life prior to his adoption, Massow has stated that "My life up to then is a bit of a blur. I had four different families, my name changed from Field to Mitchell to Massow, I was moved around for various reasons."
Massow is dyslexic and left school at 16 with one O-level in metalwork, with possibly others in photography and history, however on the subject of his early qualifications Massow has commented that "I lied about them so much, I can't remember what's actually true." He studied at Eastbourne for a BTEC in art and design, then moved to Bristol and was employed by an insurance firm. In 1990 Massow moved to London and started his own financial services business.
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“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
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