Those of you who have followed my LinkedIn posts or been on Zoom calls with me during the pandemic will know that I am an avid book reader. My Napoleonic War military drum bookcase, full of a mix of Waterloo, cricket and college history books, has elicited several kind comments. At the last count I had just over a thousand well-loved books in my library, despite my efforts to give away those I’ve read to others I think might enjoy them. That said, one of the most embarrassing discoveries of the first lockdown was that over half my books are unread. I know this because in a fit of boredom one weekend I actually catalogued them all on the Book Buddy app. Or, rather, I should say they are partly read. I wonder how many of you also buy many more books than you can ever read and get through about 30 pages of one before another ‘must read’ arrives and commands your immediate attention? 

Accordingly, I was delighted when The Property Chronicle invited me to be the resident book reviewer and suggested that I introduce myself by describing five books I love and five books I do not get on with. Given my reluctance to ever speak badly of a book (I am in awe of people who manage to write AND get published – even if the results are not to my taste), I thought I would mention five books I recommend to people entering the investment management industry instead. 

• I’m afraid my most beloved book is far from unique, but nonetheless treasured: JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I have been reading it regularly since I was 11. The book is a monumental achievement that created the modern fantasy genre and invented the concept of integrated world building, which reverberates today in Game Of Thrones and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For a book that does not actually have any explicit religion or philosophy in it, it has taught me so much about what to value and how to be a friend. In fact, it has taught me how to be a leader more than any management book on the market. My first edition of the book is my most prized possession. 
• My second book is John le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – a book that did not invent the spy novel, but certainly reinterpreted it for the Cold War. Le Carre’s novels are the antithesis of Ian Fleming’s Bond stories, insofar as they are rooted in grim and ambiguous ethical realities and deal as much in slow patient research as exciting shoot outs. I loved this book so much as a teenager that I applied to my college at Oxford largely on the basis that Le Carre was recruited as a spy by his tutor there. Sadly, I wasn’t talent spotted.
• My third book reflects my obsession with Napoleonic history and the battle of Waterloo specifically. I’m not kidding. If you check out the Twitter account @relivewaterloo you will see my attempt to live tweet the build up to, battle and aftermath of Waterloo throughout 2015, as if social media had existed in 1815. My book recommendation is Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon – a beautifully produced Taschen book covering the greatest obsession of the greatest ever film-maker (no arguments!) and the greatest film never made after Jodorowsky’s Dune. 
• In deference to my Indian heritage I am not going to choose Vikram Seth’s wrist-spraining and tame A Suitable Boy, but Vikram Chanda’s altogether more racy and crazy Sacred Games, recently adapted into Netflix’s most popular Indian miniseries. It’s a kaleidoscopic depiction of the recent history of India in all its glory and corruption as told through the story of a Mumbai gangster, the street-level cop on his trail and the terrorist-funding religious guru who unites them both. This book also immensely raised the level of my Indian language swearing, much to my mother’s distress. 
• Finally, I love graphic novels, and there are so many talented authors out there working in a genre that is often overlooked by mainstream critics. I was particularly gratified to see Nick Dmaso’s Sabrina nominated for the Booker Prize and love the classic work of Alan Moore. But my favourite graphic novel has to be Art Spiegelman’s desperately moving and painful Maus – still the only graphic novel to have won the Pulitzer Prize. Written in serial form through the 1980s, it tells the true story of Art’s father who survived the Holocaust and Art’s own relationship to that history. It’s a mix of autobiography, history, and meta-narrative and is kind of in a space of its own. 

Finally, here are the five books I would recommend to anyone entering the real estate investment management industry. The tragedy is that many of these are out of print, because we are a niche area and sadly have not cherished our history and learned from its mistakes. It might sound archaic to force a 20-something new graduate to learn about the early 1970s secondary banking crisis, but I am afraid that I am rather old-fashioned: there is very little new in the world of investment and speculation (technology changes – human behaviour does not) and much to be learned from past mistakes and policy responses.

• The Secondary Banking Crisis by Margaret Reid is a concise retelling of a banking crisis that makes Lehman Brothers look tame. All the classic ingredients are there: a bubble, excess credit, lax regulation and systemic risk. One might hanker for a past when the Governor of the Bank of England could call the leaders of the major pension funds together around his table and merely order them to take the bank’s real estate assets off their hands. This move created the modern institutional investment market. 
• The Bundesbank by David Marsh provides a crash course in central banking and its impact on both general and asset prices from the perspective of the most dominant player in the 1970s and 1980s. Given that the Buba was one of the few banks that successfully countered the wage-price spiral of the 1970s, I am sure inflation hawks will be seeking this out once again.
• Bricks and Mortals by Alastair Ross Goobey is the seminal story of the 1980s development boom, focusing on the merchant developers who rebuilt the City and the bankers who financed them. Written with pace and excitement, and brilliant pen portraits of the key players by the then CEO of Hermes. 
• My former colleague Andrea Carpenter picks up the baton from Goobey and describes the creation of a truly pan-European property industry in the 1990s and 2000s, and its subsequent crash in the Global Financial Crisis in her book, High Rise and Fall. Hugely insightful and highly recommended. 
• Finally, of the many management books I’ve read, I found Netflix founder Reed Hastings’ No Rules Rules the most provocative and influential in how I think both about management in an industry going through profound technological change, as well as how to retain, elevate and motivate the best talent. How many of us have the guts to ask our boss, “If I were to say I was leaving, would you fight to keep me?”

So now you know a little about my esoteric tastes and I look forward to sharing my recommendations over forthcoming issues of The Property Chronicle. I hope to cover a mix of fiction, history, business and property titles, and look forward to your suggestions and feedback.