Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile
By (Author) Geraint Anderson
John Murray Press
John Murray Publishers Ltd
1st March 2009
2nd February 2009
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Banking
332.1092
Paperback
432
Width 128mm, Height 196mm, Spine 32mm
301g
'Who is Cityboy He s every brash, suited, FT-carrying idiot who ever pushed past you on the tube. He s the egotistical buffoon who loudly brags about how much cash he s made on the market at otherwise pleasant dinner parties. For one period in my life, he was me.'
In this no-holds-barred, warts-and-all account of life in London s financial heartland, Cityboy breaks the Square Mile s code of silence in his own inimitable style, revealing explosive secrets, tricks of the trade and the corrupt, murky underbelly at the heart of life in the City. Drawing on his experience as a young analyst in a major investment bank, the six-figure bonuses, monstrous egos, and the everyday culture of verbal and substance abuse that fuels the world s money markets is brutally exposed as Cityboy describes his ascent up the hierarchy of this intensely competitive and morally dubious industry, and how it almost cost him his sanity.'As a primer to back-stabbing, bullying, drug-taking, gambling, boozing, lap-dancing, this takes some beating ... a necessary and valuable book.' -- Evening Standard 'Engaging, timely and important' -- Times 'His timing couldn't be better ... London's pernicious financial world reveals itself in all its ugliness' -- Daily Mail
Before sacrificing his soul to dark forces in the Square Mile, Cityboy was a genuine left-wing hippy and political activist, complete with ponytail and hoop earrings. After spending a productive gap year smoking weed in Asia, Cityboy went to Cambridge where he graduated on to pills and left with a 2:1 degree in history. He then went back to Asia for six months before pursuing a year-long MA at Sussex University studying revolutions. His dream of becoming a global traveller was cruelly dashed when his brother got him an interview at a French bank in the City, which, unbeknown to him at the time, would set him on the rocky road to destruction and despair. A chance for salvation came in September 2006 when he was offered the opportunity to write an anonymous weekly column in thelondonpaper. Geraint's confessional 'City boy' column soon garnered a cult following as he tirelessly strived to humorously expose the world that had once almost destroyed him.