Entrepreneur Graham Leslie has shared the secret of his first successful business venture – renting out copies of Lady Chatterley’s Lover to fellow schoolboys.

The founder of the highly successful pharmaceutical firm Galpharm International Ltd recalled how as a teenager living in Middlesbrough he and a schoolmate decided to invest the money they’d earned on milk rounds and delivering papers in buying 10 copies of the scandalous D H Lawrence novel and renting them out to inquisitive schoolboys.

“I was 13 years old,” he said. “I went to the docks on Teesside and managed to buy 10 copies which we rented out. The headmaster was not very appreciative of the fact that other headmasters and headmistresses were unhappy about it – because we rented them out to kids at other schools.”

Graham said he had his friend were caned in front of the whole school, but learned a different lesson from the one that was intended.

“I didn’t learn any English, maths, history or geography, but I learned a lot about people,” he said. “One thing I learned was that they punished rather than encouraged us for being entrepreneurial!”

Graham made the revelation as he delivered the keynote speech at the Kirklees Business Conference held on Wednesday at the John Smith’s Stadium.

He told his audience how after failing his 11-plus and leaving school at 14 he embarked on a range of jobs, including becoming a champion hairdresser, a bricklayer and hod carrier and a merchandiser for cosmetics and hair brand Schwarzkopf – before moving into pharmaceuticals and building up the UK’s biggest provider of non-prescription drugs in Galpharm, which he sold for $88m.

Graham, a former chairman of Huddersfield Town and a driving force behind the stadium development, now works with 16 up-and-coming companies as well as his role as visiting professor at the University of Huddersfield, where he received an honorary doctorate in 2012. He received a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours last year.

Graham Leslie with the CBE he received from the Duke of Cambridge at Buckingham Palace

Hundreds of delegates converged on Huddersfield’s John Smith’s Stadium for the 2018 Kirklees Business Conference.

The one-day conference, hosted by the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, attracted hundreds of business people.

The free event – which is dedicated to helping business make connections, learn and grow – included an exhibition featuring scores of businesses, seminars, a discussion panel, surgery sessions and open networking.

The Huddersfield-based chamber teamed up with Google to bring a “Digital Garage” as part of the seminar programme, where delegates were able to find out how to improve their digital skills to help give their businesses a competitive edge.

A series of surgery sessions in the stadium boxes covered topics including manufacturing, product development and the support available from the University of Huddersfield and the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre. There was also a panel discussion on the impact of the General Data Protection Regulation, which comes into force in May.