Daily Telegraph

"I then asked him if they would consider selling their business to me. This was what I said to everybody, but, of course, the Daily Telegraph would have suited me very well. I was surprised when he appeared to flush with annoyance and cut the interview short. So no doubt I was partly to blame for what followed. As I have said the suggestion of buying a family-owned newspaper is often received as an insult and no doubt mortally offended the Berrys. I was quite brash in my approach and there was some excuse for him resenting what I did."

"Afghanistan had been a nice diversion. Back in London, however, not everything was going according to plan for the Aquada. The cars were being built, and the invention had received numerous golden accolades. *Time Magazine* named it as one of the ‘Best Innovations of 2003’. A feature on design in the *New York Times* highlighted the car.[19](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477408-606132179-19) Leader writers fought over good lines to tell the story. The *Daily Telegraph* alighted on ‘Drink Driving — could Aquada be the ultimate plaything?’[20](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477408-606132179-20) But Gibbs’ basic business plan, to wow the world and then find a car manufacturer to make it under licence, wasn’t coming off. To his great annoyance every company they approached said that he hadn’t demonstrated the size of the market, therefore they couldn’t measure whether there’d be a return on their investment. They also worried about the effect of US product liability laws on such a radically new product. On reflection Gibbs concedes, ‘Quite naturally, people were sceptical as hell; would it work in salt water, could it handle rough conditions, would its complexity frighten customers, was it too expensive?’ Jenkins laments, ‘Our licensing idea fell on stony ground at that point; we needed someone with the balls to create the market and no one materialised. So Alan had to do it himself.’[21](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477408-606132179-21)"