What on Earth Can Go Wrong?: Tales from the risk business

By Richard Fenning

‘Beautifully written – a roller-coaster ride of risk’ Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles

‘A funny and personal account of life in the risk business’- Gideon Rachman

After spending three decades advising multinational companies on geopolitics and security crises, Richard Fenning knows all about danger and intrigue.

Kidnappings, terrorist attacks, coups d’état, corruption scandals, cyber attacks, earthquakes and hurricanes were all in a day’s work in a career that coincided with the rise of China, the tumult of the Middle East wars, the resurgence of populism and the digital revolution.

Amid chaos and upheaval, he also found humanity and humour. Often witty and always insightful, What on Earth Can Go Wrong takes us from the battlefields of Iraq to the back streets of Bogotá, from the steamy Niger Delta to the chill of Putin’s Moscow.

In a remarkable memoir of a life on the frazzled edge of globalisation, Fenning looks back with compassion and insight on the people and places he got to know, while offering some timely thoughts on the relationship between risk and fear in a profoundly volatile world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eye Press
• Release date: Feb 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781785632259

Richard Fenning

Born in Hong Kong, Douglas Board has degrees from Cambridge and Harvard and worked for the UK Treasury and then as a headhunter. He has also had a distinguished career in public life, serving as treasurer of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and chairing the British Refugee Council. He is currently a senior visiting fellow at the Cass Business School in London.