Tim Ekaterins merchant bank like all banks invests only in sure things. Now he is about to involve it in a 5 million stallion. Top breeders reckon its the safest bet in racing but racing is riddled with dubious dealmakers
- people to whom no bet is safe until its paid in blood.
...

Sir Edgar Speyer was a conspicuous figure in the financial cultural social & political life of Edwardian London. Head of the syndicate which financed the construction of the deep 'tube lines' & ' King of the Underground' he was also a connoisseur & active patron of the arts who rescued the ' Proms' from collapse enhanced the nation's musical & artistic life at his own expense & directed the funding of Captain Scott's Antarctic expeditions. Speyer & his wife the concert violinist Leonora Speyer lived in fabulously magnificent style. Early in the early summer of 1914 they stood at the peak of their success & celebrity in London society. Within weeks on the outbreak of war they became pariahs objects of suspicion & aversion. Despite having been a naturalised British citizen for over 20 years & an ubiquitous public benefactor Speyer found himself ostracised by society & mercilessly harried by the Northcliffe press. Under the Aliens Act of 1918 Speyer was summoned in 1921 before a judicial enquiry which found him guilty of disloyalty & disaffection & of communicating & trading with the enemy. He was stripped of his citizenship & membership of the Privy Council. Pilloried by The Times as a traitor Speyer vehemently denied the charges but he never returned to England thereafter & never forgot his ordeal. ...

Hanna has everything & nothing. Her father once ran IBCD a major Islamic bank that collapsed in financial scandal. Fleeing with his daughter to hide out in a hotel in Beirut he has managed to escape prosecution in the UK & to protect his wealth. But although Hanna is still one of the super rich she is living in a kind of limbo. Unable to travel with no social life or routine outside that provided by her father she is almost a prisoner in the luxury hotel where she lives
- a strange fate for a woman in her early twenties. One frightening day she discovers that her father has a secret
- something far darker & more violent than any unconventional dealing on the money markets. As she follows a trail of blood from Beirut to Lahore to London she becomes involved in corruption that challenges even her hazy sense of right & wrong. Is her father a killer? & if so should she expose him? From Trollope to Robert Harris there are many great novels about bankers. Emran Mian's brilliantly tense atmospheric debut takes us deep into a less familiar place: the psychology of their children. From ICBD's modest origins in an East End office to its extravagant heyday & ignominious collapse Hanna's world is evoked in such vivid detail the reader almost feels part of the globe-trotting financial community that can buy their way out of anything. But just as Hanna is forced to face up to the fact that she is not simply a spectator so too this clever entertaining book makes us think about our own complicity in creating monsters.

...

What is wrong with today's banking system? The past few years have shown that risks in banking can impose significant costs on the economy. Many claim however that a safer banking system would require sacrificing lending & economic growth. The Bankers' New Clothes" examines this claim & the narratives used by bankers politicians & regulators to rationalize the lack of reform exposing them as invalid. Admati & Hellwig argue we can have a safer & healthier banking system without sacrificing any of the benefits of the system & at essentially no cost to society. They show that banks are as fragile as they are not because they must be but because they want to be
- & they get away with it. Whereas this situation benefits bankers it distorts the economy & exposes the public to unnecessary risks. Weak regulation & ineffective enforcement allowed the buildup of risks that ushered in the financial crisis of 2007-2009. Much can be done to create a better system & prevent crises. Yet the lessons from the crisis have not been learned. Admati & Hellwig seek to engage the broader public in the debate by cutting through the jargon of banking clearing the fog of confusion & presenting the issues in simple & accessible terms. " The Bankers' New Clothes" calls for ambitious reform & outlines specific & highly beneficial steps that can be taken immediately."
...

On the south bank of the Thames & demarcated by Blackfriars & Tower Bridges lies the district known as Bankside the Borough & Southwark. Its origin was in a Roman settlement nestling around the southern end of London Bridge until the eighteenth century the only bridge across the Thames in London. Being separated only by the Thames from the City of London & outside the Citys jurisdiction it developed as a place for bawdy & disreputable entertainment & leisure
- including the Globe Theatre made famous by performing William Shakespeares plays. It was an area also sought out for its stews which were some of Londons most notorious brothels where every taste could be catered for. Borough High Street contained proportionately more inns & taverns than anywhere else in Britain
- & some were immortalised by Chaucer & Dickens. The George alone survives to give some idea of what these ancient hostelries were like. From a time when London was a collection of discrete districts & villages here is the long history of Bankside the metropoliss disreputable & licentious yet vibrant cosmopolitan underbelly.

...

For someone who shuns the limelight so completely that he conceals his name never shows his face & gives interviews only by email Banksy is remarkably famous. From his beginnings as a Bristol graffiti artist his artwork is now sold at auction for six-figure sums & hangs on celebrities' walls. The appearance of a new Banksy is national news his documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop was Oscar-nominated & people queue for hours to see his latest exhibition. Now more National Treasure than edgy outsider who is Banksy & how did he become what he is today? In the first attempt to tell the full story of Banksy's life & career Will Ellsworth-Jones pieces together a picture of his world & unpicks its contradictions. Whether art or vandalism anti-establishment or sell-out Banksy & his work have become a cultural phenomenon & the question ' Who is Banksy?' is as much about his career as it is 'the man behind the wall'. ' Britain's unlikeliest national treasure' Independent 'A fascinating portrait that elicits admiration for a man who despite his increasingly unconvincing efforts to retain some shred of his vandal status has had an undeniable impact on art' The Times ...

The single best collection of photographs of Banksys street work. Period. You Are An Acceptable Level of Threat concentrates on this singular artists iconic imagery spanning the late 90s up until the end of 2011. The locations are from around the world (predominantly the UK US & Europe) & many images have never been seen before. When Banksy started out painting the political landscape was bleak. Fortunately now its ten times worse. As Banksys cheerfully aggressive political work becomes ever more relevant this comprehensive tome sets about presenting his art in the context of the era he was responding to. ...

The full story surrounding the battle that represented the climax of the career of King Robert the Bruce & has since remained the most famous battle in Scottish history
- the Battle of Bannockburn. In 1307 King Edward I of England The Hammer of the Scots" & William Wallaces nemesis died at Burgh-on-Sands. His son Edward II was not from the same mould; incorrigibly idle & apathetic he refused to take on the burdens of kingship surrounding himself with favourites. The Scots under Robert the Bruce now had a chance to recover from the grievous punishment Edward I had inflicted upon them. By 1313 Bruce had capture every English-held castle bar Stirling. Faced with the complete collapse of the English position in Scotland even Edward II had no choice but to respond."
...

The battle for the control of RJR Nabisco in the Autumn of 1988 which became the largest & most dramatic corporate takeover in American history sent shock-waves through the international business world & became a symbol of the greed excess & egotism of the eighties. Barbarians at the Gate" recounts this two-month battle with breathtaking pace & flair & transports back to the Wall Street empire before it crumbled through the boardroom doors into the midnight meetings the betrayals the deal makers & publicity flaks into a world where
- as Nabisco CEO Ross Johnson put it
- a few million dollars are lost in the sands of time. Twenty years on the world is once again recovering from a period of financial extravagance & irresponsibility. This revised edition brings the ultimate business thriller up to date for a new generation of readers."

...

It is the eve of the French Revolution & England awaits with trepidation the news from the Continent that will propel her into war again after six years of peace. But Lieutenant James Hayter's orders from the Admiralty do not at first involve the sea. He must go inland to seek out his friend Captain William Rennie who has disappeared into the wilds of Dartmoor. When he finds Rennie alone & broken down in an isolated farmhouse Hayter fears the Captain will be unable to make the journey to London. Hayter has his own hopes of a command but these are cruelly dashed when they reach the capital where they find the sinister spymaster Sir Robert Greer is once more behind their deployment. They are to sail in HMS Expedient to the Mediterranean to assist Britain's ally Rashid Bey of Rabhet with Hayter yet again Rennie's second in comm&. So unprepared for what they will find on the dangerous Barbary Coast Expedient & the ten gun cutter Curlew sail into treacherous waters. The odds are daunting. They must make a show of defiance against the mighty corsair fleet of Rabhet's enemy the Dey of Tunis. Murky politics threatened mutiny desperate sea actions & imprisonment follow on the sweltering North African Coast where the rules of European warfare no longer apply & the victor will take everything. ...