He nevertheless found a manager, signed to Island Records in late 2011, and in 2012 recorded two big hits with the drum'n'bass collective Rudimental.
Removed from his beloved Petersburg, he nevertheless found inspiration in this foreign land where, as the work's dedication has it, "warlike raiders roam the hills / and a wild imagination / lies in ambush in the empty silence".
Working on Indian affairs by day and attending the House of Commons in the evenings, he nevertheless found time to write a ballad, "The Armada," as well as eight literary and historical essays for The Edinburgh Review.
At Salomon Smith Barney, a unit of Citigroup, Mr. Riedel, 37, covered small companies and was not caught up in the storm over tainted research, but he nevertheless found himself among the legions of analysts who found themselves out of work when the dust cleared in early 2003.
Though he insists that there is "no secret handshake in the 'Sons of …' club", he nevertheless found kinship with other progeny of famous parents: Chris Stills (son of Stephen Stills, of Crosby, Stills and Nash) and Rufus Wainwright (son of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle).
A protege of Luc Besson, he nevertheless found box office success with this summer's Now You See Me, an action piece starring Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson and Baron Cohen's wife Isla Fisher, which now has a sequel in the works.
