The story of Amazon wins Business Book of the Year 2013

Brad Stone, author of the ‘The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon’, has won the Business Book of the Year 2013, sponsored by the FT and Goldman Sachs.

Of course, it’s available to buy on Amazon in hardback (delivery tomorrow if I order within 4hrs and 2mins) or to download to my Kindle Fire – actually, it belongs to my wife. And speaking of wives, from an interview with the author in the FT we learn that Mrs Bezos has given the book a one star review – hmm.

I am pretty sure I’ll be ordering a copy….in a way I have been following this extraordinary company since before its launch. Jeff Bezos used to work for a hedge fund in New York called DE Shaw, that remains one of the largest. They were clients of mine in the early 90s. I was discussing with them the vague possibility of a joint venture in index derivatives in Japan with my employer, James Capel.

I only spoke with Mr Bezos a few times before I was told he’d be leaving  to start an online bookstore, which as I’m sure the book will describe, turned out reasonably well for him- give or take a few billion.