Built on a Lie, Owen Walker
Built on a Lie, Owen Walker
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Built on a Lie
The Rise and Fall of Neil Woodford and the Fate of Middle England’s Money

Author: Owen Walker

Narrator: Thom Petty

Unabridged: 9 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 03/04/2021

Synopsis

Brought to you by Penguin.

The proud owner of a sprawling £14m 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 £3.6bn 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.

© Owen Walker 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ben on January 16, 2024

Much more in depth look at the Woodford scandal with useful snippets on the inner workings and regulations (or lack of!) in the investment fund industry. Dangers of liquidity traps are eye opening. Forces you to sell your liquid holdings which leads to you have more illiquids which are harder to sell......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on May 15, 2021

Having been an investor in two of Neil Woodford's funds, selling out in early 2019 for a small loss, and having read with much interest the ups and very hefty downs of Woodford's career, this book was an obvious read. Owen Walker, the author, is a writer at the Financial Times and one whose articles......more

Goodreads review by Ian on July 13, 2022

Built on a Lie by the Financial Times journalist Owen Walker thoroughly explores the rise and fall of erstwhile "star" find manager Neil Woodford, including how adulation from the gatekeepers of the investment industry and from besotted financial journalists went to his head turned him into a bit of......more

Goodreads review by Henry on December 16, 2021

The rise and fall of Neil Woodford is a fascinating story no matter which way the story is told. Was he ever anything but lucky? It's hard to know considering his brazen approach to investing in small biotech companies in his latter years, but perhaps that's what happens when you start believing in......more

Goodreads review by Ugh on April 01, 2024

A solid and thorough-seeming telling of what was for many people a devastating and devious investment scandal. It was also a pretty simple situation, though, making this a fairly short and simple book. Woodford got cocky, didn't care enough about his investors and feathered his own bed at the expens......more

Quotes

Excellently-researched and pacy, anyone contemplating giving their money to a 'star fund manager' should read this book before they do anything former City Minister

An outstanding, readable, well researched account of the collapse of Woodford Investment Management ...'Built on a lie' wasn't a journalist's sound-bite but the judgement of Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England, who saw clearly that Woodford was a symptom of a dangerously unstable investment model. When a rogue investor smashes down a rotten door causing so much damage, give some credit to the rotten door. This is a must read former leader of the Liberal Democrats and Secretary of State for Business

What reads like a rip roaring tale of a corporate high wire act is in fact also a forensic exposure of a finance system out of control, populated by gambling profiteers operating with impunity and accountable to nobody Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington and former Shadow Chancellor

Owen reveals in meticulous detail the actions of disgraced fund manager Woodford - how he did what he did. But he also places at the heart of the story those who lost their life's savings. The ones whose names and stories we mustn't forget. Vital financial journalism with heart broadcaster

Colourful, insightful and pacey Business Editor of the Sunday Times and author of Damaged Goods: The Rise and Fall of Sir Philip Green

Built On A Lie pulls no punches. Owen Walker offers fresh revelations about the scandal, while asking important questions about what we can learn Investor's Chronicle

This book should be sold with a bottle of blood-pressure pills. Owen Walker paints a picture of complacency, incompetence and deceit that allowed Woodford, arrogant and naive in equal measure, to splurge his investors' cash on half-baked schemes, covering up the results with financial jiggery-pokery and outright lies. Written with refreshing clarity about a subject often shrouded in mumbo-jumbo and jargon... Walker's depiction is meticulous and unsparing. The Times

A revelation as to the events that wrote many thousands of small investors unwillingly into a shocking chapter of UK financial history The Armchair Trader

Neil Woodford made his name as the fund manager who made middle England rich, becoming a rock star to the investment world. Then it all went horribly wrong and Woodford lost investors more than £1bn in a ruinous fire sale. The FT's European banking correspondent tells the story expertly Financial Times, Best Books of 2021

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