Picture of author.
6 Works 424 Members 22 Reviews

Om forfatteren

Includes the name: Robert Peston

Image credit: Steve Punter

Værker af Robert Peston

Satte nøgleord på

Almen Viden

Medlemmer

Anmeldelser

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 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.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
Eyejaybee | 1 anden anmeldelse | Jan 12, 2024 |
Ten years after the death of his sister, Gil Peck is now working for the BBC as an Economics correspondent. With the collapse of a large building society the country is on the brink of financial ruin. However is this ruin being orchestrated by a group of high-powered individuals and was the suicide of Peck's lover connected?
I quite enjoyed Peston's first book about the ambitious and slightly immoral Peck and there are aspects of this one that I also quite liked. The problem was that I kept drawing parallels between the cliched characters and the people they most resembled which made it hard to reconcile this as purely fiction. It's a breathless rush of a book and quite entertaining for all that.… (mere)
 
Markeret
pluckedhighbrow | 1 anden anmeldelse | Oct 12, 2023 |
This is Robert Peston’s debut as a writer, and it is a book full of political intrigue, as Gil tries to find out the story behind his sister’s death and whether this was an accident or was contrived for political reasons.

It is clear Robert demonstrates his understanding of the role between the media and politicians, and although set in 1997 rings big bells about what is happening in the current political landscape in the U.K.

Overall I felt it was a good story, and had plenty of twists and turns, but especially in the first half I felt it was quite slow to get going. I personally would have felt this would have been better with a faster pace and with more, and pacier, dialogue. However I would still describe it as a good book, especially in the second half where it developed more pace.

If you like books based on political intrigue then I would recommend this book, and am certain as Robert writes more books they will only get better.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
… (mere)
½
 
Markeret
Andrew-theQM | 5 andre anmeldelser | Jun 1, 2023 |
Enjoyable political thriller set in the nineties. A journalist investigates the suspicious death of his sister, and rubs up against a ruthless media mogul who has siphoned off his employees’ pension fund, and a smooth politician, heading to power by transforming his party into ‘Modern Labour’. Cynicism & scullduggery abound in a fictional past that looks very familiar.
 
Markeret
LARA335 | 5 andre anmeldelser | Mar 21, 2022 |

Måske også interessante?

Statistikker

Værker
6
Medlemmer
424
Popularitet
#57,554
Vurdering
½ 3.7
Anmeldelser
22
ISBN
33

Diagrammer og grafer