The hedge manager who’s still raking it in

From the rubble of the City, a hero, of sorts, has emerged. Crispin Odey has managed to pay himself almost £28m in the last 12 months, making him one of the few financiers to navigate the credit crunch successfully. His method? To bet against banks – and their hundreds of thousands of small shareholders – but also to invest heavily in the agriculture sector which has boomed as food shortages loom. Educated at Harrow and Oxford (he went up when he was just 16) Odey, 49, survived a bad hiccup in 1994 when he lost a fortune as the Federal Reserve unexpectedly lifted interest rates. He is now one of the longest established and wealthiest hedge fund managers in London, with assets of £2.7bn under his control.

For a mere 15 months, he was married to Rupert Murdoch's eldest daughter, Prudence, but later got hitched to Nichola Pease, 47, who runs JO Hambro, and belongs to one of the founding families of Barclays Bank. With a combined fortune estimated at £300m, the couple with their three children, a large house in Chelsea and a passion for art, fine wine and yachts are seen as a sort of Posh 'n' Becks of the world of financial services.

And what advice would Crispin Odey give now? He told investors a couple of weeks ago that he thought the crunch will probably last another three years, nevertheless: "Buying shares over the next nine months may feel painful but may turn out to have been not only courageous but brilliantly timed.