Patterson, Scott – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk Henley-on-Thames Tue, 18 Feb 2025 16:18:02 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-Bell-Background-Blue-32x32.png Patterson, Scott – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk 32 32 Chaos kings https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/chaos-kings/ Thu, 26 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=43402 A veteran Wall Street Journal reporter dives into the world of billion-dollar traders and high-stakes crisis predictors who strive to turn extreme events into financial windfalls.

There’s no doubt that our world has gotten more extreme. Pandemics, climate change, superpower rivalries, technological disruption, political radicalisation, religious fundamentalism – all threaten chaos that put trillions in assets at risk. But around the world, across a wide variety of disciplines, would-be super-forecasters are trying to take the guesswork out of what formerly seemed like random chance. Some put their faith in ‘black swans’ – unpredictable, catastrophic events that can’t be foreseen but send exotic financial instruments screaming in high-profit directions. Most famous among this group of big-bet traders are those who run the Universa fund, who, on days of extreme upheaval, have made as much as $1 billion.

Author Scott Patterson gained exclusive access to Universa strategists and met with savvy seers in a variety of fields, from earthquake prediction to counterterrorism to climatology, to see if it’s actually possible to bet on disaster – and win. Riveting, relevant, and revelatory, this is a must-read for anyone curious about how some of today’s investors alchemise catastrophe into profit.

]]> Oarsmen: The Remarkable Story of the Men Who Rowed from the Great War to Peace https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/oarsmen-the-remarkable-story-of-the-men-who-rowed-from-the-great-war-to-peace/ Thu, 17 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/oarsmen-the-remarkable-story-of-the-men-who-rowed-from-the-great-war-to-peace/  ]]> At the end of the First World War, there were 7 million demobilised Allied soldiers in Europe. Getting them home after the Armistice was a task of epic proportions that would take more than two years. In the meantime, how to keep these disgruntled, damaged men with guns occupied? In a word: sport.
 
The Oarsmen tells the story of the servicemen who survived the war to row for the coveted King’s Cup at the 1919 Royal Henley Peace Regatta. With crews from the US, New Zealand, Australia, France, the UK and Canada, the teams were ragtag bunches of oarsmen thrown in old-fashioned boats and expected to race. Many had seen the worst of the action during the war at Gallipoli and the Western Front, and carried scars both physical and psychological.
 
Combining first-hand accounts with lively prose, this never-before-told story approaches the First World War from peacetime and illuminates history in vivid and compelling detail. Interweaving the soldiers’ personal stories from before, during and after the war, The Oarsmen paints a fascinating picture of how these men, and society, transitioned from an unprecedented war to a new sort of peace.

 
 

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