What Makes a Lloyds of London Risk Analyst Write a Novel?
2005 ended with news networks recalling the natural strife caused by oceans warming and plates crashing together. One of the people whose job it was to analyse the risk of such events to people was Afshin Rattansi, whose debut quartet about life in London is publishes in 2006. Already lauded by some of publishing’s top names, it looks at four aspects of London life but it is perhaps Rattansi’s past as a risk analyst that informs some of his writing. The title novel, The Dream of the Decade, is about the fall from grace of a cipher for all those who work in the City. The second concerns the threat of terrorism, the third the importance of owning property in the UK capital and the final volume is a panorama of London life seen through the eyes of a young trainee journalist. In the early nineties, Rattansi examined 20th century risk data that spanned everything from you bumping your car to the prevalence of hurricanes like Andrew and earthquakes like California’s Northridge disaster. It i
