About

Jonathan Davis

I have been playing bridge for many years and (sometimes wish that I had done what Andrew Robson did at university, which was to major in bridge rather than spend so much time in conventional academic study….who knows where that might have led?  After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in History, I trained as a journalist with Westminster Press, including a spell on the Oxford Mail and Times, before moving into national newspapers as a specialist writer about business and investment and then into the investment business itself, as a qualified professional investor for the last 15 years. I now manage my own investment newsletter and podcast (www.money-makers.co).

Why I love bridge

Bridge is such an endlessly fascinating game. Although my professional career has prevented me from playing a lot of tournament bridge, I have been lucky enough to play a lot of civilised, high stakes money bridge as a member of the Portland Club in London for the past 23 years and duplicate and tournament bridge in an around Oxford, including representing Oxfordshire in county and national events. In 2024 Charlie Bucknell and I were named players of the year in the county’s annual awards.

When I moved back to Oxford from London seven years ago,  I decided to try and give back something to the game which has given me so much pleasure over so many years.  It did not take me long to realise that the best way to do that was in a collaborative venture with Andrew Robson, my friend and periodic partner/opponent at the bridge table. There is no better player or teacher in the UK.

His clear, logical and hands on practical approach to teaching – coupled with his insistence that anyone playing the game at his club must do so in a friendly and polite spirit – mirrors exactly the approach that I wish to take  myself.  His methods have been tried and tested over a quarter of a century and it would be difficult to improve on them.

Bridge in print

Many years ago, in between working on other things, I wrote an introductory illustrated guide to learning bridge, which was translated into several languages, and has sold tens of thousands of copies.  I very much hope that I can share my knowledge and enthusiasm about this wonderful game with a new generation of learners. It is my strong belief that bridge offers something for everyone, young and old alike, and it should most definitely be played for fun.

Learn Bridge in a Weekend is the book about bridge that I wrote back in the 1990s. It is an illustrated Dorling Kindersley book that takes you through the rudiments of the game with copious colour photography and illustration – quite innovative for its time, though a little dated now. Although currently out of print, and a little dated in places. it has been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Polish and Hungarian and is still available second hand from Amazon, Abe Books and other websites.