Routines and Orgies: The Life of Peter Cundill, Financial Genius, Philosopher, and Philanthropist

by Christopher Risso-Gill

Overview

Peter Cundill (1938-2011) was highly regarded as one of the greatest value investors of his time, but he was also a teacher and mentor who was generous with his knowledge and shared the wealth of his experience with many aspiring investors. He was taken with Aldous Huxley's words that the "rhythm of human life is routine punctuated by orgies," and spent his life shaking off the quotidian tasks that dulled thought and striving for the excitement of new experiences. Supported by four decades of Cundill's meticulously kept daily journals, which are intimate, frank, self-admonishing, and confessional, Routines and Orgies covers all aspects of what Cundill referred to as his "wonderful life" - commercial, artistic, romantic, and adventurous. As he would have wished, the exposure of his investment approach has been carefully continued in this biography by close friend and confidant Christopher Risso-Gill, who initially explored Cundill's professional life in There's Always Something to Do. Routines and Orgies acquaints the reader with a generous and complex man. Spanning over seventy years, and covering most corners of the globe, it is a tale of hard-won professional development and extraordinary challenges faced and survived. Although not meant to be an investment manual, those seeking perspective from an expert mind in finance will find a great deal in its pages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780773596887
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Christopher Risso-Gill works as the senior consultant at The Peter Cundill Foundation and is the author of There's Always Something to Do: The Peter Cundill Investment Approach.

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

Part 1

1 Some Family History 9

2 An Unusual Childhood 21

3 Rites of Passage 28

4 The Early Journals: A Sampler 36

5 New Challenges 43

6 Vancouver-Bound 48

7 Apprenticeship on the Move 56

8 Going It Alone 67

Part 2

9 Taking the Plunge 81

10 Epiphany and a Fallen Idol 86

11 The Cundill Value Fund 92

12 Tilting at Windmills 100

13 European Experiments and Expeditions 108

14 A Tale of Two Cities 116

15 Cycles and Sashimi 123

16 Crisis and Opportunity 128

17 A Farewell and a Promise 131

Part 3

18 Vintages'48 and'38 137

39 The Everest Trek 141

20 The International High Life 147

21 In Dante's Dark Wood

22 Confidence Regained 159

23 Reclaiming the Initiative 166

24 Travelling with Purpose 173

25 Alarums and Excursions 182

Part 4

26 Reality Checks 209

27 Now We Begin Again 220

28 A Year of Anniversaries 228

29 The Perfect Balance 236

30 The Turn of the Tide 248

31 The Seeds of a Troubled Decade 259

32 Confronting Mortality 272

Part 5

33 A Bachelor Again 291

34 Time Present 303

35 Triumph and Disaster 315

36 The Turn of the Screw 328

Part 6

37 A Brief Respite 341

38 The Tide Turns Again 348

39 The Spark of Life Regained 353

40 Living in the Moment 358

41 Fast Lane to the Finish 367

Epilogue 381

Appendices

A Net-Net Work Sheet 395

B Notes from a Battle-Scarred Warrior 399

Index 405