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As a trickle of holders began to come from out of town, Buffett switched the meetings to a hotel, the Red Lion Then the trickle became a tide. In 1986, Buffett rented the mausoleum-shaped pink-marble Joslyn Art Museum. Shareholders, clutching copies of his reports, descended on Omaha like birds of spring – Buffett groupies, money men, Graham disciples, New York bankers, retirees now rich and young investors aspiring to be rich. While most annual meetings attract virtually no one (because most are a waste of time), attendance at Berkshire’s was 450.WHEN BUFFETT DIES it is likely that his bequest will dwarf the legacies of Carnegie, Ford, Rockefeller, and all that have gone before him. The Buffett Foundation will probably find itself with the largest endowment in the country (the Ford Foundation, the biggest, has assets of $7bn).

At 64, though, Buffett is in excellent health, even though he seems to have slept through the dietary revolution of the professional classes. It is not uncommon for him to greet the morning with a bowl of peanuts and Cherry Coke. During a SuperBowl weekend organised by Tom Murphy, chief executive of Capital Cities, Buffett ordered vanilla ice-cream and chocolate sauce for breakfast. When his friends started kidding him about his health, he responded sarcastically: “What I want people to say when they pass my casket is – ‘Boy, was he old!’ “Though still absorbed in his work, Buffett has become a tad less intense with his success. His children say he is more relaxed than in years back; his son Peter says that he is no longer aware of the clock ticking in his father’s head. Some of this may be attributable to Astrid Menks (the Omaha friend who moved in, partly at Susie’s prompting, to comfort a distraught Buffett after Susie moved out in 1977 – and stayed) Buffett has grown highly comfortable with her.

He thinks that he has helped her self-esteem, and no doubt draws pleasure from a sense of reciprocity. When Buffett and Astrid go out, Buffett looks like any Omaha gentleman and his wife, sometimes draping an affectionate arm around her. Astrid has a sense of humour about her role and has told one of Buffett’s relations that living with Warren is “the best job” she has had. Joe Rosenfield, Buffett’s octogenarian friend, says, “Astrid is what he needs now He can go off and leave her and she doesn’t mind.

She’s a free spirit – a girl of quality.”For all that, Warren is deeply attached to Susie, with whom he reunites in one corner or another (such as in Paris for a board meeting of Coca-Cola) every month or so. Warren also has a sense of humour about the arrangement; he told a friend that he couldn’t divorce Susie because she is too rich.Recently, Buffett has somewhat loosened his purse strings. He spent $1.25m of his own money for a 25 per cent interest in Omaha’s minor league baseball team – effectively an act of charity to keep the team in town. He also spends a bit more personally, such as on his travel and on his pricey suits, though the latter seem to develop rumples even in his closet.