
Built on a Lie
The Rise and Fall of Neil Woodford and the Fate of Middle England’s Money
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Narrated by:
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Thom Petty
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By:
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Owen Walker
About this listen
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 AudioBut 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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Good narrator. Fascinating story.
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Excellent book
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Good narrator but not the best
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Woodford was under pressure from the start to get the £££ he had raised invested. The broking firms he befriended earned huge commissions pushing substandard IPOs his way and guaranteeing him big allocations.
The book focusses on the illiquid investments in private companies made by Woodford but only touches on the poor investments he made in high risk, loss making, cash consuming and highly illiquid AIM stocks.
The author lets off very lightly the board of Patient Capital who seem to have been appointed for what they didn’t know rather than what they did. They were pretty uncommercial and malleable, only standing up to Woodford when it was too late.
The narrator didn’t bother to find out how he should pronounce various names. He talks about the A, I, M market and mispronounces the name of Paul Pindar and others. Mildly irritating but many won’t realise.
A good read for those with limited knowledge of the City and who want to protect themselves in the future but the book offers little in the way of new information or great insights.
A little like Woodford. The story and performance comes up short.
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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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Dull
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A cautionary tale
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