Podcasts · Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
The Coup, the Poet and the Secret to Winning Wimbledon
· 36 min · S4 E18
Episode The Coup, the Poet and the Secret to Winning Wimbledon
“If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss..."
Those words - from Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" - were based on charismatic nineteenth century doctor, Leander Starr Jameson. In Britain, Jameson was worshipped as a plucky hero: a bastion of courage and mental fortitude. Ironically, he was also responsible for the Jameson Raid, a South African coup that was an unmitigated disaster.
Kipling's champion might have spearheaded a fiasco - but could the poem "If" hold clues for triumph in another arena?
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