Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information. Sir James Michael "Jimmy" Goldsmith was an Anglo-French billionaire financier. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. In 1994, he was elected to represent France as a Member of the European Parliament and he subsequently founded the short-lived eurosceptic Referendum Party in Britain. He was known for his polyamorous romantic relationships and for the various children he fathered with his wives and girlfriends.