With the benefit of hindsight, some of the stuff in this article makes for hilarious reading, not that we don't have some fine examples in our own recent past of proud boasts about prudence coming back to haunt us.
It's interesting that Melville, according to the Sunday Times rich list of 2008, was worth (along with his brother) £75 million and yet he was being quoted as worth £120/130 million a year later. Either he had a very good year, or his propensity for bullsh*t was evident even at that point.