Winning Against the Odds: My Life in Gambling and Politics
£15.90£19.00 (-16%)
Stuart Wheeler went to Eton and Oxford. He was an officer in the Welsh Guards, a barrister, an investment banker and a major donor to the Conservative Party. You might think that he has led a life of impeccably conformist upper-class respectability. You’d be wrong.
For Wheeler is also an illegitimate child adopted at the age of two, a maverick businessman who made his fortune on the back of `the most brilliant idea that anyone had had of his generation’ and a devoted gambler who has been thrown out of more than one Las Vegas casino.
He played cards with Lord Lucan two nights before his infamous disappearance, effectively invented spread-betting with the creation in 1974 of IG Index and gave William Hague’s Conservatives GBP5 million (still the biggest political donation in British history) before being expelled from the Tories, joining UKIP and becoming a key figure in Vote Leave during the Brexit referendum campaign.
Forthright, principled and always entertaining, Winning against the Odds is a story of bets won and lost, of outrageous personalities and dramatic events, and of a singular mind that engages with the world around it in a completely unique and compelling way.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Quiller Publishing Ltd (26 Sept. 2019) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 288 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1846892953 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1846892950 |
| Dimensions | 15.88 x 3.3 x 23.5 cm |
by Busman Jonathan
Fascinating insight into an impressive man.
Interestingly gutsy libellous review of a former barrister, above, which Amazon have decided not to remove.
by Rowe family
WYSIWYG.
by bumble
Could not put it down- a very good read
by Michael1966
This is a thoroughly enjoyable book. The style of writing is fluent and engaging. The anecdotes about a life lived to the full are intriguing. The insights into the author’s business and gambling are wonderful. However, most revealing is his contribution to the political life of our country. Whether or not you agree with him, you can surely appreciate the integrity, sincerity and commitment which he showed.
by A. W. Goodhart
Luck matters but so does working hard and having good judgement. The author benefited from all three and was thus more influential than he might have expected.
by Tom Rubython
Stuart Wheeler is a very interesting man and a very honest and ethical man. IG Index, is the most honourable company involved in the spread betting business. You can trust it completely and that is down to the ground work laid down by Wheeler and maintained by his successors. This book is thoroughly entertaining, especially if you are interested in the stock market, gambling and politics, all three of which feature heavily. Thoroughly recommended.
by Andrew Maclean
This is an autobiography of one of nature’s gentlemen. Stuart writes in a jaunty, pleasant to read style, of a life marked out by luck from the time that he was plucked out ‘Annie’ style from an orphanage by a well to do family through to his extraordinary good fortune, helped in no small measure by his incredible head for figures, in creating the spread betting industry. He does seem to have been most fortunate in his friends and acquaintances who assisted his bumbling attitude to life’s challenges. He also writes most movingly of the tragic loss of the love of his life and the support of his three daughters at this difficult time.
It is a cracking good read and paints a picture of a largely self-made man who most of the time has been able to calculate the odds on virtually everything, but who comes across as possessing great humanity and someone who one would greatly value as a constant friend through thick and thin.
by ukpaul
I really enjoyed this book. Highly entertaining, and a life well-lived.
I am so glad Stuart Wheeler wrote his memoirs. Sadly he passed away recently, so RIP, and thank you for writing this wonderful book.