Vicky Pryce

City Slickers

Crash, Bang, Wallop: The Inside Story of London’s Big Bang and a Financial Revolution that Changed the World

By

Sceptre 340pp £25 order from our bookshop

Don’t be fooled by the title of Iain Martin’s book. He gives you a lot more than just a view of the Big Bang of 1986, which arguably helped transform the City of London into a truly global financial centre. He also provides a good historical perspective on the City’s origins and evolution and of the innovators, rascals and adventurers who made and lost fortunes and helped to shape what we have today. And his book confirmed to me that the City is a financial centre like no other.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • With our February issue about to go to press, enjoy a slice of LR history - Hilary Mantel on Joan Haslip's biograph… ,
    • What did London look like in the 6th Century? Rory Naismith's 'Citadel of the Saxons' tries to answer that questi… ,
    • Start your week with a dose of Russian Revolutionary zeal. Donald Rayfield reviews Tobie Mathew's 'Greetings From t… ,
    • A treat from the LR Archive: exactly 20 years ago, Malcolm Bradbury reviewed John Updike's 'Bech at Bay' ,
    • ‘When bullets come close, the noise they make as they go past changes from a zing to a crack’ John Lanchester's dy… ,
    • Man with a Bloody Paintbrush: Robin Simon on Lucian Freud ,
    • Jane Ridley reviews The Diaries of Kenneth Rose (ed. D R Thorpe) ,
    Follow Us