The Insiders: A Portfolio of Stories from High Finance

by David Charters

In this remarkable debut collection, David Charters reveals the secretive world of international bankers, brokers, and business executives with an insider's acuity. Sharp suits, fast cars, lavish expense accounts, and exclusive clubs are the comforts of lives lived at a furious pace, where betrayal and blackmail are paths to success, extramarital sex is an equal opportunity job perk, and an initial public offering might be a matter of life or death...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312333811
• ISBN13: 9780312333812
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Delightful tales of business characters

Thoroughly enjoyable collection of short stories on the lives of people involved with the financial world. Sensitive perspective of ambitions,busyness,pressure, competition, bitterness and deceit of employees of all levels and big tycoons of The City of London, which are also found in any other major financial district in the world. I highly recommend its reading.

An enjoyable snapshot of the seedier side of finance

The Insiders provides an amusingly enjoyable collection of short vignettes profiling sticky situations investment bankers, corporate executives, and other denziens of the high-powered financial world find themselves in. Though all of the characters are fictional, readers who have worked on Wall Street or other places like are bound to recongize some of the tales as hitting suspiciously close to home. David Charters is a Brit, and as such all of the stories are set in the City of London (England's version of Wall Street), but the behaviors displayed by the characters are just like stories we've all heard coming out of the United States' financial corridors. So much for cultural differences! Overall, The Insiders is a highly enjoyable, lighthearded read that will bring a smile to your lips. It's great for a long plane ride or a quiet weekend (when you aren't stuck at the office working on your next transaction, that is). Whether you work in the world of "High Finance" or are simply interested in it, don't miss this great little book!

My flight home

Facing a long boring flight home from London to Newark in December of 2002 I found Mr. Charters book in a book shop in Heathrow, having spent my entire business life in the international investment banking industry I bought it, more out of curiosity then any thing else. What a pleasant surprise, I laughed out loud at some of the tales in the collection, the people in the business section of the Continental flight might have been disturbed by my laughter but I could not help my self. This is a real laugh out loud enjoyable collection of stories, if you are involved in the financial world they will hit closer to home then you might care to admit, if you are from outside the financial world you will find them outrageously funny any way! Enjoy this cleverly written book, I did!