Price of fortune: the untold story of being James Packer. Damon Kitney. 2018.

Born into a powerful media dynasty, James Packer, at the age of 38, inherited a $5 billion fortune. In the following decade, he pursued a dream of transforming his father Kerry’smmedia empire into an international gaming and entertainment colossus. But by the start of 2016, the pressure was taking its toll……

When James Packer first sat down with seasoned Australian business journalist Damon Kitney in Aspen on a freezing winter’s evening in mid January 2018 to be interviewed for this book, it was the billionaire who started asking the questions.

seated on his favourite living-room couch - diving into a bowl of Twisties with one hand, clutching a cigarette in the other - he asked Kitney to outline his goal.

The answer was simple: to tell the human story of being James Packer, warts and all, good and bad, fairly and accurately. Packer’s response was equally succinct. ‘Okay then. I am up for that.’ He replied.

So began a six month journey that proved both painful and cathartic for the famously private subject. Packer granted Kitney unprecedented access into his personal life with face-to-face interviews on three continents, and countless documents, photographs, emails and text messages.

The result is this multi-faceted, insightful and revealing portrait of a man whose deepest secrets were, until now, known by only a select few.