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Built on a Lie

The Rise and Fall of Neil Woodford and the Fate of Middle England’s Money

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Built on a Lie

By: Owen Walker
Narrated by: Thom Petty
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Brought to you by Penguin.

The proud owner of a sprawling £14 million estate in the Cotswolds, boasting a stable of eventing horses, a fleet of supercars and neighbouring the royal family, Neil Woodford was the most celebrated and successful British investor of his generation.

He spent years beating the market, betting against the dot com bubble in the 1990s and the banks before the financial crash in 2008, making blockbuster returns for his investors and earning himself a reputation of 'the man who made Middle England rich'. As famous for his fleet of fast cars and ostentatious mansions, he was the rockstar fund manager that had the lifestyle to match.

But, in 2019, after a stream of poorly judged investments, Woodford's asset management company collapsed, trapping hundreds of thousands of rainy-day savers in his flagship fund and hanging £3.6 billion in the balance.

In Built on a Lie, Financial Times Reporter Owen Walker reveals the disastrous failings of Woodford, the greed at the heart of his operation, the flaws of an industry in thrall to its star performers and the dangers of limited regulation. With exclusive access to Woodford's inner circle, Walker will reveal the full, jaw-dropping story of Europe's biggest investment scandal in a decade.

©2021 Owen Walker (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Business Business Ethics Corruption & Misconduct Forecasting & Strategic Planning Investing & Trading Management & Leadership Mutual Funds Personal Finance Politics & Government Professionals & Academics Celebrity Investing Banking
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Great story and how the financial world looks after its own and like bankers never get put in prison

Good narrator but not the best

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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.

Excellent book

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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.

Good narrator. Fascinating story.

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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!

A potentially dry subject told like a thriller.

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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.

Lifeless Narration but well informed book

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