A potentially dry subject told like a thriller.

Okay, so I exaggerated a tiny bit in the title of my review...
But seriously, this could have been as boring as hell. But it wasn't at all and jogged along like a cross between a whodunit and a weighty (and important) channel 4 Dispatches documentary.
Can't make my mind up whether that's because it's brilliantly written or brilliantly narrated. Probably both.
The research that's gone into this book must have been enormous and I can only marvel at the enormity of the task.
Should be a best seller, but probably too niche. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it immensely and I'm not in finance. I will, however, pay closer attention to what my own pension fund manager buys and sells on my behalf in future though!

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Good narrator. Fascinating story.

Enjoyed it, good insight. Hard to believe no-one got a criminal conviction for the activities, be that both Woodford and the fsca! Recommended. Easy listening.

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Excellent book

Excellent book. A very British look at how financial institutions work and how the British regulators are just as guilty as their American counterparts of mismanagement and hubris.

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1 person found this helpful

Good narrator but not the best

Great story and how the financial world looks after its own and like bankers never get put in prison

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A little like Woodford. The story and performance comes up short.

I was very disappointed in this book which I listened to on Audible. I found the story of Woodford’s rise and fall superficial and lacking in any new information or insights.

Woodford was under pressure from the start to get the £££ he had raised invested. The broking firms he befriended earned huge commissions pushing substandard IPOs his way and guaranteeing him big allocations.

The book focusses on the illiquid investments in private companies made by Woodford but only touches on the poor investments he made in high risk, loss making, cash consuming and highly illiquid AIM stocks.

The author lets off very lightly the board of Patient Capital who seem to have been appointed for what they didn’t know rather than what they did. They were pretty uncommercial and malleable, only standing up to Woodford when it was too late.

The narrator didn’t bother to find out how he should pronounce various names. He talks about the A, I, M market and mispronounces the name of Paul Pindar and others. Mildly irritating but many won’t realise.

A good read for those with limited knowledge of the City and who want to protect themselves in the future but the book offers little in the way of new information or great insights.

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Lifeless Narration but well informed book

Obviously this was written as a book and it does deal with a dry subject. But it maybe this is not one for the audio format. At times it was painful
to listen to the narrator convey interviews and quotes. The content is very well researched and informative.

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5 people found this helpful

Dull

Interesting story of a bloke who ripped off thousands of hard working people whilst lining his pockets with obscene amounts of money.

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1 person found this helpful

A cautionary tale

A well-researched and interesting book. I felt the narrator was a little over-dramatic if I’m honest, unnecessarily hyperbolising, but not to the overall detriment of the book. Worth a read if you’re interested in this sort of stuff!

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