Robert Peston

One of my all-time favourite novels is A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks. Published in 2009 while the dust was still settling following the global banking crisis, it features an extraordinarily Machiavellian financier called John Veals, who devises and sets in motion a major couple which, in addition to winning him an immense fortune, will scupper the country’s foremost banking institution. Reading it shortly after its publication, while the wounds that virtually everyone in the show more Western world sustained from the banking crisis still felt rather raw, I was amazed at the apparent simplicity of Veals’s subversion.

As it happens, it was during that crisis that I first became aware of Robert Peston, who was then the BBC’s leading financial correspondent, and whose sanguine reporting helped offer some degree of understanding of terms being bandied around such as ‘subprime’ and ‘toxic debt’. Peston moved on to become the BBC’s leading political editor, before then moving to perform a similar role in commercial television.

His second novel revisits the crisis. The story is a first-person narration from Gil Peck, a high-profile journalist with the BBC, and opens in 2007 when he receives a tip that one of Britain’s banks, based in the north-east of England, may have seriously overreached itself and could be facing existential challenges. Peck checks with contacts in the Bank of England who confirm that there are issues with the bank in question. Peck uses the tip to secure a journalistic scoop, although that results in massive queues outside each branch of the ailing bank as customers rush to withdraw their money. But then Peck’s contact in the Bank of England is found dead, and it transpires that various other banks are experiencing similar problems, and may be looking for the government to bail them out.

Peston draws on his immense knowledge of the field to create a very tense thriller, full of twists. He also has an enviable capacity to describe highly complex financial transactions and constructions in a readily accessible manner. In a former incarnation I was an investigative tax inspector, but my experiences of forensic accounting would not have helped me to make much headway through the labyrinthine twists and deceptions that mar Gil Peck’s investigations.

My one cavil – a minor one – is that nearly all of the characters are so deeply unpleasant, including Peck himself. I don’t particularly need to be able to empathise with characters in order to enjoy a book, but it would be nice to find at least one that has some redeeming traits. show less

The 2008 financial crisis wasn't a surprise. The writing had been on the wall long enough among many experts, and when it finally blew up it was merely like a child finally pointing at a naked Emperor. The question is, how did we get there?

Untangling it all is certainly not easy! Born out of the highly complex functioning of institutions engaging in obscure gambling and speculations (if not plain scams!) all very abstract for the layman, here was a mess incredibly difficult to get your head show more around. Robert Peston, though, manages to explain it all in simple terms. It's his strength -as he tackles the topic very accessibly, as if writing the script for an investigative documentary for people otherwise clueless about economics to watch. It's also his weakness -since many readers might find it so easy to read they may not learn anything new nor relevant to them. Personally, here was one of the first works I approached about the topic -having no prior understanding of such financial world- and so I was grateful for its straightforward approach.

The key concepts are simply defined. More, what he also does is to link it all to the political world (more my cup of tea) to show that, if banging on crook financiers is justified, nevertheless, most of the responsibility lies with politicians themselves. After all, they allowed this to happen by letting their own interest colluding with such world, at the expense of the rest of us. Peston being a British journalist, he deals here with Great Britain only; and what an eloquent example that is!

He reminds us indeed that if Britain was so dependent upon the financial sector in the first place, it was mainly due to the strong will of the New Labour to turn the country into an attractive window for such billionaires and businessmen (many made filthy rich by the speculations underpinning that catastrophe), a political will which had led to a near plutocracy dangerous for democracy. In fact, it's not so much the shameless wealth accumulated by a few and thanks to a dubious tax system that he denounces here, but the Cash for Honours scandal whereas such wealthy 'barons' received life peerage in exchange of donations to the New Labour. If this wasn't reflecting a corrupt system, then what does?

Here's a book, then, which is easy and accessible enough to understand the financial chaos which led to the crash, while putting things into a broader perspective. The economic crisis alone was bad enough. The most disturbing aspect of it all, though, was that it was peddled by a corrupt political system whereas democracy was put on hold to serve colluding interest between the political and financial world. It surely bashes hard on New labour while seemingly sparring the Tories (which is unfair -who embraced such looney capitalism in the first place?). Nevertheless, here's a punch for those unfamiliar with such worlds yet wanting to understand a bit better what really happened. A very good read. show less

I think the major strength in Robert Peston’s storytelling in this political thriller is the convincing authenticity of his depictions of politicians, the workings of Parliament and the Civil Service, political journalists, the adrenaline-fuelled atmosphere of press rooms, the pressure of journalistic deadlines, the power exerted by media tycoons, corporate greed and the obstacles put in the way of anyone who is attempting to expose corruption of any kind. By setting his novel in 1997, show more during the run up to the General Election, he used his professional knowledge to very good effect, evoking the highly febrile nature of the political mood of the time, the public’s disillusion with the government of the day and the strong desire for change, all of which will be instantly recognisable to anyone who lived through that period. However, the downside to this was that I found myself spending too much time wondering which real-life people some of his characters were possibly (probably!) based on. Whilst that was quite entertaining, I think this distraction contributed to my difficulty in feeling fully engaged with the developing plot, particularly during the first half of the story. This meant that it wasn’t until the second half of the story that I began to experience the escalating tension I expect from a thriller and, once this had happened, to feel more invested in what was happening to the fictional characters. Although there were occasions when I thought the development of the storyline relied too heavily on some improbable coincidences, on balance, the rather dark, labyrinthine plot felt all too depressingly believable. Without wishing to give anything of the plot away, I appreciated the extra twist the author introduced to the ‘whistle-blower’ aspect of the story.
Although many of the characters were distinctly flawed, each one was well-drawn (‘warts and all’) and, with their various peccadilloes, made a convincing contribution to the author’s portrayal of the rather murky world of political manoeuvrings and shenanigans, lobbying and the powerful influences of big business and the media which underpinned the storyline. With his drink and drug habits, his vanity, his frequently amoral behaviour when it came to how he obtained information for his next big story (something which had caused his estrangement from his sister) and his generally self-centred attitudes, I must admit that initially I found it difficult to find any redeeming features in Gil. However, the gradual revelations about his past experiences, both personal and professional, enabled me to understand what drove him and, very slowly, to begin to warm to him! I think this process was helped by the fact that I really liked Jess, his colleague and fellow seeker of the truth behind Claire’s death, and thought that if she was prepared to help him, he must have some saving-graces! It was also helped by the many ways in which the author so effectively incorporated themes of ambivalence, trust, loyalty, betrayal, grief, mourning and love, when exploring Gil’s past and present relationships, particularly those with members of his family (his parents, his two nephews and his brother-in-law) in the weeks following Claire’s death.
Whilst this is unlikely to be one of my top-ten books of the year, I did find it an entertaining read, particularly enjoying the dry humour and political satire which was a key feature of Robert Peston’s storytelling.
With thanks to Readers First and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

The financial catastrophe of the last 10 years has been written about many times - describing what happened, explaining what happened or proposing what has to happen next. Despite the title, Peston's book is mainly about explaining what happened with a little advice about what needs to happen next. Peston's position as a financial/business analyst and reporter gave him a front row seat during the crisis and gives him the right skills to explain what went wrong to the rest of us. That he does show more not quite succeed in this is, I think, more due to the enormous complexity of the financial organisations and structures that we have in place than to any failures on his part.

Peston presents a good description of why things went wrong for the technical laymen. This is not focused on the personalities or the individual banks involved (for that, see 'Too Big To Fail'). We get the macro-economic framework that put us where we are and why things happened the way they did. The primary focus is the UK and eurozone economies with little about the USA or the rest of the world, although China gets a fair look-in. This is not a failing, just a particular focus and a reminder that not everything is a reaction to what happens Stateside.

The most depressing outcome from reading this book is the realisation that our financial and economic frameworks have become so complex and so intertwined that no one, perhaps least of all the people who are supposed to be governing it all, have any real grasp of the big picture and, worse, have no idea what the real impact of any particular action they take might have. As Mario Andretti said - 'If you think you're in control of the car, you're not going fast enough' - and I think that is where we are today. The bankers are driving this global economy car and are only concerned with speed, not with safety, fuel efficiency or even direction.

Lastly, I think it is inevitable that a current affairs book like this can quickly become out-of-date and it proves so here in some places (the book was published in 2012). It is also sad to see that some of Peston's 'If we don't change this soon, this bad thing could happen' have happened and with little sign of any efforts to do anything by governments, regulators or bankers. Meanwhile, everyone else suffers. show less