Jolly Contrarian

Jolly Contrarianism & Devilish Advocacy But seriously read this bit If you wanted to help Now the Jolly Contrarian doesn’t advertise, and he doesn’t earn anything from this site, and that’s just fine – it’s a labour of love (and resignation) of which you are welcome to make what you will. But if you have found something you like, and you were minded to say thanks, do it this way: donate to Georgia’s Fund. Or you could snag yourself a copy of Hunter Barkley’s e-book The Montenegro Sanction. That way you get yourself a free book with a stupid but fast-paced story and you donate to Georgia’s Fund at the same time. Bonus. Georgia was a brave, talented, beautiful little girl. She had a lovely smile which she wore through a whole lot of hardship. She was a great little cricketer, and she was mad about animals. Especially wolves. In October 2016 Georgia was taken away from her mum, dad and big brother, and they – and all of us in the family’s wider community – miss her terribly. Georgia’s mum and dad have set up a fund in Georgia’s memory, which, as of what would have been Georgia’s 15th birthday in May 2019, had raised over £150,000 to support research into better treatments for Neuroblastoma (through Children with Cancer UK and Neuroblastoma UK. A small portion will go to looking after wolves. Cricket can look after itself. The good news is that the fund is now formally registered as a charitable fund (UK charity no. 1099682), so is eligible for gift aid and all that jazz. You can now donate easily by clicking right here. ► The Jolly Contrarian Get in touch Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Requests? Sign up for our mailing list? Questions? We’d love to hear from you. BREAKING: Festivus newsletter out now!

There is a Jolly Contrarian in all of us. You, me, him, her — each of us has our inner daemon, a creative destroyer, ein glücklich widersprüchlichmensch who takes over in weaker moments, when our resolve cracks and the absurdity of our professional existence reveals itself. “Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich hinein”

If only we would let it out more often.

Then there is the Jolly Contrarian. He is a charlatan, simpleton, knave and prone to bouts of inappropriate levity. When not speaking half-truths to the disempowered he writes this wiki. He has a long-suffering spouse who may or may not be Prussian nobility. Not, most likely. But you wouldn’t know that by how she carries on.

Who is the JC?

The JC yesterday. In the Big Easy, man.

Well, after ten years I suppose I should at least own up to who I am, so here goes: I’m Olly. (in Persian, “الی”. Geddit?) Interests, if they’re not obvious from this wiki, are financial services law, language, writing, guitars, cricket, books and mountains. And wikis: MediaWiki, which this site is written on, is the cleverest software, and I have learned a lot about it in the last decade.

While writing this wiki I’ve practised commercial law in NZ and the UK for 27 years, mostly inhouse at places I will not mention to protect their reputations as much as mine. I put in a stretch as a film and book reviewer — which I was pretty good at, as you will see from my fan mail — written a couple of books (the first one, The Montenegro Sanction, under the pen name Hunter Barkley, you can buy for a fiver from Amazon), released an album of angsty-but-ironic rock music (Dangerboy), played with my buddies in the same cool band, Supercheese, for longer than either the Beatles or Led Zeppelin managed, and drunk a lot of wine, all while being supported by my super-talented better half — whom I will spare the ignominy of naming — but she is a world-famous bridge teacher, artist and the most patient spouse on the planet.

The Jolly Contrarian started out life in 2012, as AmwellClear, as a fun way way of remembering the difference between Loss, Market Quotations, Close Out Amounts and Unpaid Amounts and just kept growing.

SEO folk: before you write to offer tips on how to differentiate the JC from its competition, remember: when you write satire about derivatives THERE IS NO GODDAMN COMPETITION.