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Who Wants to be a Billionaire? is the story of James Packer’s desperate battle to win his
father’s love and respect. It’s also a tale of billion-dollar bets gone disastrously wrong. But
above all it’s the portrait of a troubled relationship between a dominant father and dutiful
son.
In this powerful sequel to his #1 Bestseller, The Rise and Rise of Kerry Packer, Paul Barry
shows how James's father kept his grip on the empire even as he lay close to death. And
he reveals what drives his heir.
As a child James was derided by Kerry as too soft, too close to his mother, or simply 'a
loser'. Since then he has struggled to make his father proud—in the only way the Packers
know—by making money.
Having seen Kerry lose hundreds of millions in the world’s casinos, James chose to bet
billions of dollars on buying them instead.
Then came the global financial crisis and he almost lost the lot. As markets hit rock bottom
in early 2009, Australia’s richest man was $4 billion poorer and no longer on top of the
heap. He was smoking again, putting on weight and shutting himself off from friends.
Years earlier, far smaller losses in One.Tel had pushed him to the brink of a nervous
breakdown and made him seek salvation in Scientology.
Can James survive this time? Will he bounce back? Or was his father right?
Reviewed By Toni Whitmont, Booktopia Buzz Editor
To read more reviews by Toni Whitmont,
click here to visit the Booktopia Newsletter Archive.
Who Wants To Be A Billionaire : The James Packer Story
This is going to be red hot. The unauthorised biography of James Packer, written by the man whose pedigrees include the stories of Alan Bond and more relevantly, Kerry Packer.
A battle to win the respect of the father, billion dollar bets going disastrously wrong, a dutiful son, under his dominant father, devotion to Scientology and a global financial crisis that has shaved a whopping $4 billion off his personal fortune.
Who Wants to be a Billionaire is going to be explosive and controversial."
