The majority of British people remember Mark Thatcher as one of the only people who ever made his mother, former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, show any personal feelings in public.
In January 1982, as a somewhat wayward 28-year-old with a taste for motor racing, Thatcher took part in the gruelling Paris-to-Dakar car rally and managed to disappear in the Sahara desert for six days.
Facing the press to talk about her missing son, the famously tough ”Iron Lady” shed a tear in public in what was then an unprecedented show of emotion.
As it turned out, Mark and his co-driver had simply broken an axle on their Peugeot 504 and were unharmed when spotter planes eventually located them waiting in their broken-down car.
Up until his reported arrest on Wednesday by South African authorities over his alleged involvement in a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, the younger Thatcher’s brush with death in the desert was his chief claim to fame.
Otherwise, he had managed to acquire the reputation of being a generally amiable, if slightly blundering, figure who had managed to make himself wealthy despite a distinctly mixed record in business.
Mark and his twin sister, Carol, were born on August 15 1953, the only children of the would-be premier, who was at the time working as a lawyer before entering politics.
Educated at famous private school Harrow, Mark is viewed as less diligent — and, perhaps, less intelligent — than his twin, who has carved out a solid career for herself as a journalist and author.
In February 1987, Mark married Texan heiress Diane Burgdorf, with whom he has had two children, and relocated to the United States for some years, becoming involved in a series of business ventures with mixed success.
In late 1995 after reportedly losing million of pounds in business deals, Mark and his wife decided to make a new life in South Africa, buying a plush, six-bedroom house in the exclusive Cape Town suburb of Constantia.
But even there, trouble was not far behind.
Within a few months of his arrival, his now ex-premier mother flew into the country amid reports Mark was having trouble renewing his South African visa.
Subsequently, Mark has lived a generally quiet and low-profile life in Cape Town, where his near-neighbours include Earl Spencer, elder brother of the late Princess Diana.
However, in recent months, a series of British newspaper reports have linked Thatcher to the backers of foreign mercenaries accused of an alleged plot to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in Equatorial Guinea. — Sapa-AFP