Nick Lederer is in his late 30s and he's doing very well for himself. He's an investment banker in the City of London and lives — with his wife and three children — in a house in Chelsea last valued at £3.2-million (about R54-million).
He goes to the gym, eats healthy food, likes a fine red wine and has five full-size military NBC suits (short for nuclear, biological and chemical), a one-week supply of mineral water and a pile of tinned food stacked with a gas grill in the cellar.
Because Lederer, like an increasing number of successful people, is preparing for the end of the world.
"I've got some super-rich clients worried about long-tail events like revolution or something apocalyptic," he explains. "They're buying land in safe countries and doing things like secreting gold coins around the house."
He shakes his head dismissively.
"My biggest worry is smaller than that: mid-tail events — a three- to five-day incident with maybe parts of London cordoned off. I don't have gold, but I always carry cash in case the ATMs go down. Things feel very unsafe at the moment. It's just best to be prepared, you know?"
Lederer calls himself a prepper, and he's part of a rapidly growing global movement preparing for some sort of disaster: either a full-scale cyberattack or a nuclear war, another global financial crash, an environmental catastrophe or a giant asteroid colliding with the earth.
BUG-OUT BAGS
To ensure they're ready for a SHTF (shit hits the fan) situation, preppers stockpile food and water, carefully arrange finances and medicines, buy crossbows, pack "bug-out" survival bags — prepper slang for a rucksack with survival equipment for living in the wild — and even, in some cases, buy and convert old nuclear bunkers.
In 2015 Robert Johnson, the head of the Institute of New Economic Thinking in New York and previously MD at Soros Fund Management, told a packed session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he knew plenty of worried hedge fund managers who were buying airstrips and farms "because they think they need a getaway".
One British banker I spoke to recently has bought 9,000ha of land on which he plans to sink shipping containers a metre underground."We're all feeling a bit like preppers right now, aren't we?" says Lederer (not his real name because "anonymity is priceless"). "Russia threatening America, Korea developing the bomb, and terrorist attacks — they're making lots of people nervous."
He shows me a newsletter from his kids' primary school, which outlines preparations for a major catastrophe: "We can secure the site quickly," the headmaster writes. "We have supplies of water, food, blankets, torches, etcetera. The site will be closed and you will not be admitted until lockdown is over. You will put yourselves and the school in danger if you try. Everyone will be safe inside."
There has been a small survivalist movement in the UK since the Cold War — usually portrayed as a bunch of tinfoil-hat-wearing doomsayers. Since 9/11, however, the movement has been growing, there and around the world. In the US, Silicon Valley billionaires in particular have embraced prepping — Steve Huffman, co-founder of Reddit, has guns, motorcycles and ammo stashed away, and recently had laser surgery so he wouldn't depend on glasses, while the founders of some major companies are said to have bought land in New Zealand, which is considered by many in the tech industry as the ideal safe haven should the US collapse.
MARAUDER METRICS
In the UK, the technology sector shares prepper concerns. "I ask people how much food they have in the house, and do they insure their house against fire?" says Peter Dawe, who founded the UK's first commercial internet service provider, Pipex, back in 1990.
"The chance of rationing being imposed is seven times greater than your house burning down. If you've got fire insurance you should also have £50 worth of food — a bag of rice, tins of tuna, tomatoes and spices — to get through the first few weeks of order breaking down."
Dawe sold Pipex in 1995 for £150-million. He's since founded a property development company. His first move after selling Pipex was to buy a farm in Norfolk as a base for a prepper community called Beat the Bear — named after the old joke about two hikers meeting a bear in the woods. One hiker puts on running shoes. "You can't outrun a bear," says the other. "I don't have to," says the first. "I just need to outrun you."
The farm consists of arable land, with a grain crop close to harvesting. It's dotted with sheds — "storage and to house recruits", Dawe says. "We have a regional borehole for water and a covered reservoir on the farm. Plus we're relatively remote. Marauders would have to go past an awful lot of farms before they got here."
Dawe's plan is to house his immediate family and friends — around 30 people — for free and start offering paid-for places, based on subscriptions, to 120 more. If you pay now, he'll use the money to add a distillery, farming equipment, seeds and the like, but the size of the group is less about income and more about long-term survival.
"If you're going to survive, what sort of survival do you want?" he asks. "I want to live in a community that works nicely. Not to stand in a castle shooting people."
In 2012, the University of Cambridge set up the ultimate prepper department: the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, dedicated to the study and mitigation of risks that could lead to the collapse of civilisation. The centre's current list of top 10 threats, with likely date and level of risk, includes nuclear war (any time; low to medium risk), extreme climate change (any time; low to medium) and an asteroid impact (50 to 100million years; low risk).
"UK preppers are less paranoid than Americans," says Tom Linden, a long-term, second-generation prepper who started running survivalist training courses after being demobbed from the Royal Observer Corps in 1992.
"In the UK, we're more concerned with cyberattacks or an electronic collapse."
UNHAPPY CAMPERS
US preppers are more likely to bug out — head for the wild; in the UK they're more likely to bug in, meaning hole up at home.
"Camping out is bloody uncomfortable and cold," says Robert Cook, who runs a financial PR firm. "I don't think there's any point. If you're in a vast country like America you could camp in the wilderness for years and no one would see you.
"I'm more about stockpiling at home — locking myself in with my family for a month or two. I've got a shed in the garden with loads of ration boxes. I've even got a generator."
Linden does have a bug-out bag waiting near the door in case of a sudden emergency.
And he thinks everyone should carry an EDC — everyday carry bag — all the time. His boasts a defensive spray, a 650ml self-purifying water bottle, dextrose tablets, energy bars, a silver metallic blanket heat blanket, a penknife and a torch. The whole thing weighs just 900g."I even took it into hospital with me last year when I was in for an operation," he says proudly.
Buying and equipping a bug-out, bug-in or EDC bag is easy. There are prepper shops that supply them pre-packed.
Lincoln Miles — who runs one such shop in a farm building near the town of Bedford, about 90km from London — used to be a surfer dude, and ran a surf-equipment shop until three years ago, when he read an article about the US prepper movement.
He started stocking prepper items, which sold so much faster than surfing gear that he soon switched over completely.
"At first, I imagined it would be military types, people who go off into the woods at weekends and that sort of thing, but it's literally all sorts," he says. "I've got customers from healthcare, a couple of airline pilots, folk who work in factories and, yes, a few military types, but they're not the majority."
BUNKER ENVY
Recently he was advising a man who had persuaded his wife to let him fit out a panic room — "more like a panic house", in fact. He gives a quick smile. "He's kitting up with air-filtration systems, water-purification and gas masks and suits. I looked at his company e-mail a little later and he was very senior at a big financial institution. I thought, he's got some money behind him ..."
Over the past 10 years, preppers in the US and the UK have been buying up old nuclear bunkers and converting them into private shelters. In 2012, the Survival Condo Project, a 15-storey luxury-apartment complex built in an underground missile silo, opened for business in Wichita, Kansas. The complex can support 75 people, with enough food and fuel for five years off the grid. There are 12 private apartments — full-floor units were advertised at $3-million (about R39-million) and a half-floor for $1.5-million. Every unit has been sold.
In the UK, Russ McLean runs the Unique Property Bulletin, which advertises unusual buildings for sale — including lighthouses and nuclear bunkers from the UK's Cold War civil defence network.
"In the 1990s bunkers were selling for about £5,000, but since 2008 interest has been increasing," he says.
"In 2012 we sold one for £18,000, and last year we sold one 30 minutes from London for £31,000. Not bad for a hole in the ground. We're getting inquiries about lighthouses as well, especially remote ones."
Linden isn't impressed. "I think those bunkers are being bought by rich people just because their mate has one," he says. — The Daily Telegraph, LondonHOW TO PREP FOR THE APOCALYPSE
SURVIVAL TIPS
• Water is the No1 essential item to store for a disaster. You can also pack a water filter.
• Never keep all your stores in one place. Spread them out at different locations, says prepper Steve Hart.
• Have a large supply of any medication you may need.
• Keep an emergency bag in your car in case you need to make a hasty exit or get stuck somewhere.
• Pack your hygiene essentials. Poor personal hygiene might lead to disease.
• Think about having some hideouts ready to go to in the event of a disaster.
• Stay in your home if disaster strikes, as long as it is safe and you have the necessary supplies.
ESSENTIALS TO PACK
1. First-aid kit 2. 24-hour rations3. Paracord reel 4.Waterproof matches 5. Notepad 6. Fishing kit7. Fixed-blade knife8. Bivi bag 9. Flint firestarter 10. Stove11. Multitool12. Gel fuel 13. Wire saw14. Mess tins15. Insect repellent 16. Water-purifying tablets 17. Emergency poncho..