Golden Handcuffs

Book excerpt: Everyone's got a child, a friend or a neighbour who works in the City. The six-figure bonuses and golden hellos are no secret, nor are the hundred-hour weeks, the highpressure deals or the regular rounds of redundancies in the Square Mile. It's a cut-throat world...everyone knows that. But do they know what it's like for the thousands of fresh-faced young graduates who pour into the City each year? Do they know what it's like to get woken up at three in the morning by a taxi outside your window, ready to haul you back into the office? What it's like to feel guilty for sloping off to the gym at nine o'clock at night? This cynical but entertaining novel follows two 'high-flyers' through their first year in the City. Based on the writer's experience at an American investment bank, it reveals a world that doesn't quite match up with the fast-paced, exhilarating one that was painted so enticingly on the undergraduate milk-round. "Golden Handcuffs" is about twenty-something graduates in the City. It tells of ambition, hard work and disillusionment. It has been called a 'latter day version of "Liar's Poker" by Michael Lewis', a 'must-read for all young professionals' and strikes a similar chord to "I Don't Know How She Does It" by Allison Pearson, though it is aimed at a younger reader. A witty insight into the City, it is told with a fresh, young style that cannot fail to appeal to this as-yet untapped market.