His father helped to run Britain's propaganda against the Nazis in World War II, was then the Conservative Party’s first professional Public Relations officer[1] and later PR consultant.
The O’Brien family is one of the oldest lines of descent in Europe, dating back from much earlier than the Irish High King Brian Boru (941-1014).
At this time O'Brien combined his interest in painting and motor-racing to become a motor racing artist working for Shell, BP, Porsche and Mercedes-Benz.
After a start in the Rank Organisation, O'Brien developed a broad-based marketing career in public relations, advertising, design and film-making.
O'Brien also went into authoring, his first illustrated book published in 2000 being Fringe Benefits, which charted the lives of both Donough and his father Toby, with a foreword by Joanna Lumley[3] He followed this by Fame by Chance in 2003 which identified places all over the world which had been made famous, or infamous, by a twist of fate.