The Lucky Bugger's Casebook : Tales of Serendipity and Outrageous Good Fortune

The Lucky Bugger's Casebook : Tales of Serendipity and Outrageous Good Fortune
ISBN: 9781848311527
Publication Date: 7 October 2010

Ranging from Newton's apple to the underwired bra that deflected a bullet, this title features upbeat stories of real-life serendipity. What connects the discovery of America, the creation of Coca Cola and the art book bought for GBP50 that turned out to contain original Picassos?

That's right : sheer blind luck. No matter how meticulously things are planned, time after time the most important bits of life are the product of simple, random chance.

In wonderfully witty style, Daniel M. Smith gives us the stories of inventors, Nobel Prize winners, scientists, actresses, escapees, engineers, kings, architects, pop stars, criminals, supermodels, tennis champions, opera singers and many more who have benefited from happy serendipity.

From the Japanese trader who made fortune after a share price typo to the German novelist who lost his manuscript on a train, and ended up buying some fish wrapped in his own pages at the station, The Lucky Bugger's Casebook is a celebration of the type of unexpected good fortune we all dream of - just ask Sir Paul McCartney, who awoke one morning with the tune to 'Yesterday' having arrived in his head overnight.

About the Author

Daniel M. Smith worked in publishing as a researcher, writer and editor of non-fiction including The Statesman's Yearbook : a geo-political guide to the word, The Artist's Yearbook and The Screenwriters Handbook and in 2003 lived and worked in Calcutta, India. He is the author of World in Your Pocket, a factbook about the countries and cultures of the world, and Sherlock Holmes : An Elementary Guide. He lives in east London with his partner, Rosie, and an assortment of fish.