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Passport To Profits: A Guide To Global Investing

Originally published in the winter 1999 issue of Global Custody Review magazine

Passport To Profits: A Guide To Global Investing
by Mark Mobius (with Stephen Fenichell)
Orion Business books
Wellington House 125 Strand, London WC2R OBB
Tel: +44 20 7420 5555. Fax: +44 20 7836 3422
Pp422; £20.00 (in UK only)
ISBN 0-75281-016-2

Launched in London in the autumn with a personal appearance by investment guru Mark Mobius, Passport To Profits is an excellent read. Informative and entertaining both, it just about lives about to the writer's billing by the book's publicists as the Indiana Jones of the investment world.

Mobius, oft described as one of the most successful corporate investors, shares at least some of the secrets of his success in international investing in this unique insight into emerging markets. (Mobius has managed the high performance Templeton Emerging Markets Growth Fund since 1987; his returns have averaged 20% annually).

The Butchers' Ball

Originally published in the winter 1999 issue of Global Custody Review magazine

The Butchers' Ball
by Mark B Cohen
Hodder & Stoughton
Pp 375; £16.99

ISBN --340-71298-8

www.brassmonkeys.com

We don't normally review fiction but will make an exception where the action or the author is connected to the financial world. Both are in this case, the author being one of the many Marks who while away the working day at Baring Asset Management in Bishopsgate, the main action taking place in an organisation which sounds very familiar.

Readers of his previous novel, Brass Monkeys, will recognise the style and elcome the return of characters such as Will Cloud, the pot-smoking Irish detective, and populist television presenter Candida Blitz. Workmates are no doubt having great fun working out who's based on whom. New readers will enjoy The Butchers' Ball on its own merits, and for its fond evocations of City life, past and present.