Sir Anthony Fisher: A Biography

Antony Fisher’s achievements throughout a varied and fascinating life were extraordinary. A successful entrepeneur from his twenties, and a decorated Battle of Britain fighter pilot in WW2, he later introduced chicken factory-farming to the UK (his second wife said, ‘Antony did more to put a chicken in every man’s pot than any king or politician’) and made a fortune in the process. But it was Fisher’s concern with the liberty of the individual, crystallized by a meeting with the free-market thinker Friedrich Hayek that redirected his life. As a result, Fisher poured his wealth into establishing the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), an independent economic think tank that has had enormous influence on public policy and the views of leading politicians, notably Margaret Thatcher. By the time Fisher died in 1988 (having lost his fortune in a turtle-farming venture, and only four weeks after being knighted), the IEA and its spin-offs around the world had played a crucial part in changing the direction of post-war politics forever.