Review of Liberty Bazaar by David Chadwick

I've had a recent burst of reading spy fiction. Partly inspired by the end of Spooks on TV and an endless fascination with security issues and the end of the Cold War. It's a genre that floats my boat far more than the current public's fascination with historical fiction.

I mention all of that because David Chadwick's Liberty Bazaar shares that light touch intensity of the king of this genre, John Le Carre. Though set in Liverpool at the time of the American Civil War, it matches the claustrophobia of 1960s Berlin. The intrigue, the rules of engagement of espionage and the double dealing.

Liverpool in 1865 was a city on the edge of an empire with conflicting interests in the American Civil War. The importation of cotton through the port was tricky enough, but the 20 miles of shipyards on either side of the Mersey also harboured ill deeds to construct warships.

The Liberty Bazaar of the title refers to an actual event held in St George's Hall to raise money for Confederate prisoners of war. The hidden purpose was to fund warships to beat the Yankee blockades. Placing Liverpool at the heart of the story, 150 years after the end of the war, is a stroke of genius.

That's the background, which is compelling enough, but the style is in itself the real triumph of the book. Bouncing between narrators it tells the tale through intertwined destinies of an escaped slave girl Trinity Giddings and a decent minded Confederate officer Jubal de Brooke who both end up in Liverpool. The other players in the story veer between outright treacherous and terrified self interest; the complexities of war blurring the boundaries between the good guys and the bad guys.

It's corny I know, but I ended up casting the film of the book as I read it. Imagining Kevin Spacey as the villainous southern spy States Rights Rankin, a dashing Matthew McConaughey as Jubal and Naomie Harris as Trinity.

This was a terrific read, funny, witty, clever, compelling and hugely informative about the forgotten role of our major port city in a moment of history.

Good news and bad news for Labour - the public aren't interested

There's good news and bad news from the Labour leadership election. Personally, I think it's 99% bad news. The sliver of light through the door however is that the public don't care and they aren't watching. Supporters of Jeremy Corbyn can kid themselves that there is mania for the Jez We Can movement, but it is a tiny minority pursuit. 

Trust me, I have been watching the BBC News "Most Popular" stories all summer. Not the BBC News editorial priorities, not what Newsnight or Channel 4 News thinks should top the running order that night, but what the actual public are reading and watching on the UK's most popular source of trusted news.

It isn't Labour.

It certainly isn't Jeremy Corbyn.

It isn't dumbed down either, it's a mixture of the things that interest people - war, death, sport, immigration and how to make your life a little bit better. 

I say that's good news, because all the utter crapness of the Labour Party bickering and being hideously out of touch is happening out of plain sight. 

It isn't a surprise to me. To people inside politics it is hugely interesting and intruiging. To most of the population it just isn't. The window of opportunity opens very briefly and closes shut again. 

I had a call the other day from a guy I know who runs one of the most successful businesses in the North of England. This is a man who needs to be in tune with the public mood. We don't really talk politics, to be honest, but he was polite enough to ask me how I was about "it all". I could tell he couldn't even name a single candidate. It's not important or interesting or relevant. It will be at election time, but it simply isn't now.

There will be a rocky road ahead. Labour may well turn into Podemos, the leftish party in Spain that appeared from nowhere. We may well be transformed by a new army of activists that quickly redefines who we are. 

Either way, when that window opens again we have to be relevant. Thankfully at our moment of utter irrelevance, no-one is watching. 

The Jam - About The Young Idea exhibition

I went to The Jam exhibition in London over the summer, a real indulgence of nostalgia on a sticky hot day. It reinforced to me the power of Paul Weller's cultural influence on my teenage upbringing, the vast range of musical and political nuggets he helped me absorb during those incredible formative years.

I'll get my moan out the way first. The sound from each individual room blasted out so loud you were never far away from competing tinny blasts of Town Called Malice or Funeral Pyre. But then comfort zones were never part of the Jam experience. Weller always challenged your ideas and safe preconceptions. He was always keen to unsettle your assumptions - including his dismissal of punk posturing by the throwaway line that they would be voting Conservative in 1979. In so many ways the exhibition  took you back to Jam gigs where feeling safe and comfortable was never part of the deal. They were a boiling, heaving mass of adolescent fury and emotions. Some solid bonds, but the flames grew higher too.

I took two quite staggering points away with me that I never knew before. Paul Weller's school report where his lowest mark was in music. The second was the sheer force of personality of John Weller, his father. Sure, I remember him introducing the band, but a short film and the clippings really highlighted his powerful role in pushing the band and his son.

Just like I mentioned when I reported from a From The Jam gig in Preston a few years ago, I was as fascinated by the audience of fellow Jammers. I was there in a dark suit and clicky brogues, as described by Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail earlier in the day, but there were well turned out geezers in Sta Press and Ben Shermans, Fred Perry and Levis and a few in suede desert boots. Then there was Peter York milling about, looking as dapper as he always does.

But The Jam was so much more than just a great band and a look, I loved how Weller opened my eyes to ideas too. So I was pleased that due prominence was given to Orwell books and Shelley's poetry as there was to the musical influences and the clothes.

It's at Somerset House in London and has been extended until the end of September. I'm sorry it's taken me a month to write this up, but I've been dreaming of a quiet life, the one you'll never know.

Reviews of 40 by 40 and where to buy it

I've been moderately pleased with the sales for 40 by 40 - but the response from those who've read it has been even better than I could ever have imagined.

I'd love to push you all towards specialist local bookshops like Marple Bookshop, Simply Books in Bramhall and the local authors section of Waterstones on Deansgate. There's a great shop opened in the Northern Quarter, opposite my office, called Chapter One. It's just what the area needs.

If you can't stomach Amazon, and I can understand why, then I've set up a PayPal payment page where another imperial internet behemoth will only take a modest fee and I can send it directly to you. Just click on this button and see what happens.

Here are a selection of reviews anyway, there are others on the Amazon website.

Kevin Sampson, author, Awaydays: "Haha, brilliant! As amoral antiheroes go, Cashmore knocks Gordon Gekko, John Self and Steven Stelfox into a tin hat. What a lovable twat!"

Martin Vander Weyer, business editor of the Spectator: "You are the Martin Amis of this generation. Really enjoying it, but had to Google 'rusty sheriff's badge'."

William Lees-Jones, brewery owner: "Read it on a sun lounger by a pool in Mallorca, the irony of which amuses me - great read and happy not to feature in it."

AK Nawaz, crime writer: "First novel I've read tackling 2008 credit crunch is cracking read - fantastic first book."

Andy Tupholme, private equity investor: "Snippets of genius had me chuckling."

Kristian Dando, business journalist: "I think i'm going to enjoy this."

Steven Lindsay, corporate financier: "The shocking, outrageous, abusive excesses would be unbelievable if they weren't so realistic."

Rachel Thompson, digital wiz: "Really enjoyed the book... Did feel a bit sorry for Roger but then hated him in equal measures!"

Dave Smith, corporate funder: "Like a fly on the wall documentary."

Michael Fort, entrepreneur: "It was the talk of the Cote D'Azur".

Greg Broadhurst: "Laughed a lot, loved it."

Aidan O'Rourke, photographer: "Phew, if you want loveable good-hearted characters; a gentle storyline don't read this book!"

Gaynor Black: "Loved it."

Phil Morgan. "Interesting."

Why a rush to English identity is a mistake @ProgressOnline

Here's a piece I've written on our very Fluid English identity. It was sparked by a piece by Eddie Bone from the Campaign for an English Parliament, who I disagree with.

LawyerFair Podcast #30: interview about @40by40book

Labour: scrutinise Corbynomics, mellow Kendall, substance please from the other two

Our leadership voting packs will drop on our doormats soon - though knowing the Labour Party it will probably be an email.

The hustings for leadership are over and the decision time is nigh. Here are three things I'd like to happen regarding the candidates.

Liz Kendall has got the pitch all wrong, the campaign needs to get warmer. It needs to break out of policy detail, it needs to sparkle with excitement. She was the stand out star for me at conference last year, my first for six years. She had ideas, clarity and a self confidence about her that made me sit up and take notice. At a supporter's Q&A in Manchester I was impressed again at how personable and bright she was. But, and there was always going to be a but, this awful, awful leadership campaign has seen her struggling to articulate that brighter view of social democratic politics I know she has. Her eagerness to critique the last leadership (correct in her analysis, by the way) for failing to appeal to Tory voters has been shouted down. The spats at the side about Continuity Miliband and the Blairite Taliban and the vile "virus" comment have just further positioned her as a candidate who will divide.  

Some of this isn't her fault, but there is a tonal problem. Kevin Meaghar nails this in a Labour Uncut piece here. I fear it may be too late.

Secondly, Andy Burnham is threatening us with a vision this week. I'd desperately like to see this from him and Yvette Cooper. He's promising a bold challenging manifesto. It takes me back to a Progress conference in Manchester last year where casually dressed Andy - my Dad's favourite Labour politician - said our challenge to get back into government was to offer the British people a competing vision for the future that rejected the Conservative one. I leaned forward in anticipation, desperate to discover the intellectual heft behind this most likeable bloke and hoping it was a little more substantial than his 2010 leadership pitch for "aspirational socialism". None came. There wasn't one. It was just that we had to come up with one. He was right, but he is promising now what didn't come then. 

Finally, give Jeremy Corbyn and his policy programme some proper scrutiny. It's a great shame that Corbyn's critics drag up his shouty interactions on Channel 4 News, his cosy relationships with dictators and brutes like Hizbollah, Hugo Chavez and George Galloway. It's a greater shame that the trump card most frequently played is that he would be an electoral disaster.

The shame here is this is the kind of scrutiny for a candidate that isn't taken seriously.

I think we're past that now and it's time to sit down, seriously and open up what he actually stands for. 

It took a while for me to re-commit to Labour after a long abscence. I was particularly concerned that a return to opposition offered a comfort zone of naysaying, righteous anger and an opt out from a period of tremendous challenge and change. The world is a very complex place requiring detailed and complicated solutions to long term deep seated social change. You can confront that, dive in and seek to be driven by the values of making this complex world work for everyone. Or you can just sit back and say it's all crap and someone else's fault.

There is no question that globalisation doesn't work for many, many people. Neither should we as members of a party constututionally committed to extending power to the many not the few accept the Conservative narrative on a long term economic plan that isn't delivering.  

But I was genuinely taken aback when I read Jeremy Corbyn's Economic Plan. It is a frightening set of slogans for the bits of Tory economy we don't like, with no attempt to craft a solution based upon the elements of society we do. That, at least, would have been an impressive start.

It's a curious mish mash of higher taxes and flippant buzz words about austerity. It amounts to little more than the usual platitudes about taxing business more and investing in infrastructure, oh, and nationalising the railways. A scrawl on the back of a beermat reckons that should be enough. 

Everything else? Self employment is dismissed as the flip side of zero hours contracts. Entrepreneurs are part of a Tory myth. Social enterprises, co-operatives, contracting? Nothing. 

Small and medium sized businesses, the role of universities in developing intellectual property as part of a national treasury of ideas and innovation? Nothing here either. There's a cursory nod in the direction of "suppy chains" without even a thought to what they consist of and who makes them up.

If this is the economic plan for a serious contender to lead a party of government then we are truly stuffed. 

The members of the public I met on the street stall yesterday showed the full range of challenges for Labour. Foremost amongst them was a need for a clear leadership. 

My conclusion at the end of all of this, and what will be the last word on it all is this: I really wish Caroline Flint had stood for leader. And sometime soon, she may have to heed the call. 

Summer reading special - are the characters in 40 by 40 real?

Roger Cashmore, the central character in 40 by 40, is obviously fictional. But there are truths in his persona. People tell me they know who it is based on. And they are right. Even if it's a different person every time.

One of the key lines in one of my favourite films is: "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled, was convincing the world he didn't exist."

Some of the other characters are also "inspired" by people I've come across, there's also an "easter egg" in the naming of all the minor characters. There's a lunch at San Carlo, or a coffee in Costa in Alderley, for the first person who can spot it.

I was asked another great question for a piece in The Big Issue in the North. Why include real people and situations?The answer is in the interview below.

And if you'd like to order the book, pop into your local bookshop - including Waterstones, or order from Amazon. We have a few events lined up - hopefully one at Waterstones in Wilmslow and another in Alderley Edge.

Where did the idea for the book come from?

I’ve always wanted to write fiction, but on the basis you should write about what you know, the subject matter jumped out at me. I had a ringside seat for the biggest story of my journalistic life. I loved Kill Your Friends by John Niven, which is about the music industry in 1997, it tells so many truths, as you’d expect from a former A&R man, despite being a work of fiction. Truly, 2008 felt like it was the last days of Rome, fortunes were lost, reputations trashed, people died. I also wanted to weave together some extra jeopardy by putting the twin worlds of hooligan gangsterism and serious business together.

What’s the key to creating a monstrous character who will still engage readers?

Two things, making him darkly funny and letting the reader know that he’s not as clever as he thinks he is. Flag up a few obvious clues that he’s heading for a fall. If you think about, that’s what made Wolf of Wall Street watchable. With my central character,  Roger Cashmore, he’s got his money in an Icelandic Bank on the Isle of Man, it’s 2008, you know that isn’t going to end well.

Why did you decide to include real people in among the fictional characters?

As it’s set in a real time and place, Manchester and Cheshire in 2008, where real events happened and I was a witness to them, it seemed mad not to. It roots it in reality and makes it all the more plausible. Why invent a moment when everyone was warned about the looming global financial crisis when one actually happened. A conference in May 2008 at the Yang Sing restaurant,  where Jon Moulton predicted it all, I was there, I took copious notes, I have his slides, I have the guest list, all the other people in book who were there - football managers, property developers, big hitters - all add colour. You literally could not make it up.

There’s insider detail on everything from corporate espionage to complex financial instruments. How did you go about your research?

Talking to people, lots and lots of people. It’s my job to understand corporate finance and understand the way that world works. The money laundering and the espionage stuff came from a detailed briefing from a real spy. I also interviewed Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former head of MI5, but she didn’t tell me any secrets as such.

Was it easy to find your fictional voice after a career in journalism?

I did write a spoof column for a few years where the voice was honed. In many ways it was easier to tell this story through that prism, as I could take liberties. I do really admire long form journalism and the sketch portraits of a crisis that Michael Lewis does so well in the Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour. I could have done something similar but there are fewer outlets for that.

Are women really as sidelined in North West business as they are in the business world portrayed in the book?

Less so now, happily. But just look at the Rich Lists and the Power 100 – overwhelmingly male, pale and stale. But although the book is centred on Roger Cashmore as a sexist arse in a world of “good lads” it is also a book about redemption and lessons learned. It has to be, doesn’t it?

Will Roger Cashmore be the progatonist of another book?

Absolutely. I’d like to fast forward to 2015 in a slightly different world, where a bruised and confused Roger is up for something new and stands for election in an unwinnable seat, for the Tories. I’ll call it; “We’re all in it together”.

Do buy the Big Issue in the North off one of the vendors when you're out and about. It's a great social enterprise originally set up by my friend Ruth Turner and now edited by my former super sub Kevin Gopal.

For the party, for the country, Deputy Flint

Caroline meets the Taylors

I was deeply honoured to be asked to chair a rally for Caroline Flint on Saturday in the council chamber in Manchester Town Hall. She is the stand-out candidate for the deputy leadership. An impressive roster of Labour politicians - Hazel Blears, Peter Dowd, Richard Leese, Claire Reynolds, Jonny Reynolds, Nick Bent - all gave short speeches about why they are supporting her and what we need to do when she wins.

Here is mine.

We have much to take from this election, if nothing else some valuable lessons about why people DON’T consider voting Labour. Afterall, in Hazel Grove we talked to many more Tories than most Labour campaigners and so feel we understand some core issues about what cost us.

Jonny Reynolds MP, also with family

But you realise what Labour needs to do for people when you knock on someone’s door, or they respond to you in the street and they  say THANK YOU for being Labour in our area – an area they felt had been colonised by the Liberals and we’d given up.

We can’t give up – we must never give up.

Because there was something Caroline Flint said which struck with me – Labour must have a 650 seat strategy.

We must operate in a different way – be there for people.

Becoming a social movement isn’t just about knocking on doors, but getting people to knock on your door too.

In every council ward in the country there are probably 100 people who make a community tick, sometimes they are known as community organisers – sometimes they would never dream that such a moniker could be attached to them.

They organise sports teams, kids activities, church events, carnivals and festivals. But also food banks, home helps and credit unions. They may not even be overtly political, but they care.

Hazel Blears

We have to be these people. And be amongst these people in our communities. Not for cynical electoral advantage, but to provide leadership when it is needed. 

We have use the skills and talents of each and everyone. Learn lessons from the very best practices of community organising and growing organisations.

The Women’s Institute, the Churches who provide comfort and social assistance in our communities. How organisations embrace technology to coalesce and organise.

Let me end by telling you a story about Joe.

A first time voter and a party member. He’s built a business doing something called the Teenage Markets.  

I contacted him and got him involved in our election campaign. His Dad stuck a massive Correx board up – in fact I think Jonny gave it to him when he popped into the office in Market Street in Hyde.

I could have handed him a bag of leaflets and gone round Mill Lane Estate with him as I did with many of the volunteers who joined our junior army in the campaign.

Caroline Flint MP thanks her supporters

But Joe also loves making films and has that talent and so he did one with me (the link to YouTube is here) – I’ve no idea how many votes that gained us and I know not every party member can do that. But if you start from the perspective that as Labour we wish to develop the potential of every human being, then it is incumbent on us to nurture the talents within our party and amongst our activists too.

I love the vision Caroline has for creating a party that finds more Joe's – that’s why I’m proud to be with you all today.

Blair this week - correct in every possible way

I was fortunate to be back on my old stomping ground of Chartered Accountants Hall on Wednesday for a seat in the audience for a change to listen and to watch Tony Blair.

The whole thing is here.

Jason Prince of the neighbouring parish has written a superb and deeply personal summary - Change, or we consign ourselves to the wilderness. I can't better it, so won't.

From that same stage I've humbly provoked debate about theories of the future with audiences of accountants and businesses and encouraged a new way of looking at the world, while putting together the Tomorrow's Practice project. There is indeed, as Blair said, a huge market out there for ideas about the future. But you have to want to hear it. There was no doubt the true believers in the room did, but outside?

I was with business colleagues yesterday talking about change in one of our businesses we run - iterating, adapting, thinking about how technology and shifting regulation is shaping what we do in different areas. We have to constantly adapt. But we have core values, a strategy and goals in mind.

"Labour shouldn’t despair. We can win again. We can win again next time. But only if our comfort zone is the future and our values are our guide and not our distraction."

Footnote. Quentin Letts of the Mail made the following observation: "Yesterday’s audience included a lot of 40-something men in black suits and unbuttoned shirt collars, Blakeys in their heels so that their shoes clicked when they entered." Nice to be noticed.

Our non-charter charter for Discuss

I've been tweaking the website for our remarkable debate and event business DISCUSS.

I'm slightly proud of the copy for the "about us" bit on our website, so I thought I'd share it here.

Discuss doesn't have anything as snooty as a charter. But we do have a starting point. 

We take our inspiration from Manchester’s celebrated history in progressive thinking, invention and the free trade of ideas.  

Our debates will always be challenging and provocative, but we are never high-brow, intimidating or ‘glitterati’. 

Our debates aim to be inclusive, authentic and delivered with integrity.

Foremost, they will be fun.

No fuss, no clutter, no messing about, just a good old fashioned ding-dong. 

 The rest is here...

Penistone Literary Festival and a few questions about the book

There's something really exhilarating about book festivals and author events - I go to a fair few myself, so it was great today to be at the front doing a reading from my book, 40 by 40, and taking questions in my slot at the Penistone Literary Festival.

I'm going to be speaking at an event called Darkness and Decadence with Lynn Gerrard on the 24th of July at the Nexus Cafe as part of the Manchester Fringe Festival.

I've also done an interview with local author Paul Beatty.

1. Please tell us something about yourself. 

As it says on my Twitter: Marple dwelling father to 5, writer, business thinker, debate curator. Catholic. Stood for Labour in 2015. Arte et Labore. A lover not a fighter.  Or as some prefer: “Vacuous careerist and Mandelson crony”.

2. Your new book 40 by 40 is your debut novel. What’s it about?

Redemption and feminism. Actually, it’s a bawdy comic thriller about a vile sexist business bad boy set in Alderley Edge and Manchester in 2008, the year it all came on top. "A riotous skewering of the worst excesses of laddish business culture, with full due diligence done" according to The Big Issue in the North.

3. Where did your inspiration and motivation come from to write 40 by 40?

I had a ringside seat for our era defining year as a business journalist. Everything in the book is sort of true, even the bits that aren’t real.

4. How did you get away with adding real actual people into the story, like Sam Allardyce, Jon Moulton, Tom Bloxham and Rio Ferdinand?

They’re the backdrop, the background noise to the events of the year. I got some permissions, some I took out on legal advice. As long as you don’t degrade their persona, what harm could it do?

5. Is the central character actually based on a real person?

At least half a dozen high profile Cheshire dwelling entrepreneurs seem to think it’s them. So obviously, no.

6. What books do you read for pleasure and why?

Crime noir (Raymond Chandler, James Crumley and JJ Connolly), great American novels (Cormac McCarthy), long form journalism (Michael Lewis), I’ve read everything by Christopher Hitchens and George Orwell. Helps me see the world as it is.

7. What book would you like to consign to room 101 and why?

1984, for inspiring crap TV formats.

8. What is your writing process?

Fits and starts, then a final flourish.

9. What will be your next writing project?

The follow up is already in play – We’re All in it Together, where our guy stands in the General Election in a challenging seat, for the Tories.

10. What tips would you give to someone writing their first novel?

Write about what you know.

Interviewing Roger Cashmore

Launched the book tonight. I've been to plenty of launches where not much happens. Also been to a few signings and public events where the author does an intervew and a reading. So far, so good.

Tonight I actually interviewed the lead character of my own novel. Seriously. My friend Graeme Hawley, a proper professional actor, performed the role of greedy, grotesque Real Businessman of Cheshire Roger Cashmore so well, it was actually quite unnerving. It reminded me why and how I wrote the book. The experiences of horror at the hands of egotistical pyschopaths. "Great Lads" who think they are funny and clever who are used to getting their own way and force feeding their opinions on supine acolytes. Yes, them. Graeme was Roger tonight. 

We effectively played it as a straight interview - scripted to a degree but with some really good ad libbing from Graeme who "got" the look, the tone and manner perfectly.

He was even accompanied by his security minder Alan Townley, played with great accuracy by, er, Alan Townley and his long suffering PR played by Lisa Ashurst, who is a PR.

I'd like to do this again, get some people from Graeme's world in, agents, producers and script people who could see what a brilliant performer Graeme is and how this would make great TV or theatre.

It's not for me to say if the book's any good or not, but I'm pleased that people seem to be enjoying it and it's selling well. After the first bit, we swapped roles and Graeme moderated a Q&A about the book and I loved reliving the experience of writing it - what the characters and plot devices related to. The role of journalism now, the difficulties of building empathy for a horrible character, the three act structure, how the book is ultimately about redemption and forgiveness. 

Everything has to be doesn't it? 

Deputy Flint has found her voice

There comes a point in any political campaign when a candidate finds their voice, their rhythm and it clicks. Unsurprisingly I don't think any of the Labour leadership contenders are there yet. They're too cautious, too keen not to commit a gaffe. I say it's not a surprise because frankly they must be wrung out after an exhausting General Election and are right back in the thick of it with barely a moment to conduct the kind of campaign that plays to the disparate parts of the party as well as the country. 

But on the deputy leadership issue my mind is firmly made up to support Caroline Flint. On John Piennar's politics show on Radio 5 and on Question Time this week I was mightily impressed with Caroline. She has that cadence, that connection with people and a fearless confidence I want a deputy leader (and a leader) to have. The very fact she's got on with it rather emphasises her own qualities of resilience.

Of course we have to connect beyond making ourselves feel good. Of course we have to think beyond being a protest movement - which were just a couple of messages from today - but I think she's in listening mode as well.

She also has that authentic certain something about her - maybe even a few eccentricities, like a love of Games of Thrones - a family, a story, a way of talking to people across this varied and quirky country that doesn't patronise or demur.

The candidates aren't going to provide all the answers, neither must the party swing behind the anointed in September in a show of faux unity, but dig in for a deep and dirty understanding of what it takes to get back to power in council chambers, in Mayoral contests and in the General Election of 2020.

Writing my first novel - the how, the why and the when

Each generation has an era defining time. The summer of love of 1968, the Arab Spring, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Ours wasn't a summer of love though, more an autumn of fear. 

In 2008 it felt like the world was truly turning upside down. I can remember vividly the day when my savings account in a bank in Iceland was wiped out. How friends saw their businesses turn to dust. When our advertisers pulled plugs on everything.

I sat and watched it from the editor's chair, hearing stories of real drama, real fear and that feeling that this was a seismic, epoch changing time. This was our time and my novel, out now, is my attempt to tell this amazing tale.

I've always wanted to write creatively. Journalism is great, but sometimes news journalism doesn't give you that sense of perspective. As time went on and my job was more managerial, I had fewer and fewer outlets for that long form, investigative, exploratory story telling of human struggle. The kind of thing Michael Lewis is the absolute master at. And the kind of thing that if we managed to do three of them a year we'd enter them for awards, creating the illusion we do this all the time. 

But I also quite like comedy writing, but have never done anything about it, despite having always knocked out the funnies page. Way back when I was a student at the University of Manchester I used to contribute stories to the Mancunion diary page at the back - often about Derek Draper, if I remember rightly. Wherever I worked, I always fell into the "back page" role rather well. I also developed fictitious characters to tell truths: Arty Tosh, Corporate Raider and Lucretia De Bitch.

In the course of my time I also wrote a column called Roger Cashman. He was a grotesque caricature of a greedy and sexist Cheshire businessman. He became a minor sensation on Twitter, even finding a nemesis in his wife, Doris, which was absolutely nothing to do with me. 

For a while I kept it a secret that it was me. The chairman of the board highlighted it as his favourite part of the magazine and I had to come clean. We'd even get occasional letters of complaint, but more questions as to whether he was for real. My reply was always that he may or may not be real, but that everything he said was true. 

But Roger Cashman is dead. He disappeared over the edge of his boat off Puerto Banus in 2011, only for someone to try and scam his Twitter account for personal gain in 2013. He is dead. Long live Roger. Another truth about business, cowardice and crime.

And so it is with my first novel - 40 by 40. The premise is simple. Here's our guy, rich, bored, on the brink of greatness and huge wealth in order to stave off a mid-life crisis. Setting himself up for a life of reality TV stardom, more easy money, sex on the side and of course the dalliance with football club ownership. You know that moment in Goodfellas, at the end of act two, when Ray Liotta's character has it nailed: "We were wise guys, Goodfellas, we had it all." Well, that's my central character of Roger at the start.

WARNING. Roger Cashmore is appalling. A monster. From the first words - "You can't go wrong with sick white children" - the calculating cynicism of charitable giving writ large - to his dismissal of his wife's concerns, his self-centred avarice, lack of loyalty and the essential split personality - wanting to be taken seriously by those he fears most. All of it makes him hard to love. But I hope you will end up rooting for him, hoping for a redemption of some kind, even if he doesn't get what he wants. 

I know I did so with Jordan Belfort in Wolf of Wall Street, Steven Stelfox in Kill Your Friends and John Self in Money.

The jeopardy is the real world. This is 2008, we know what's going to happen in April when the tax rate changes. In September when Lehman Brothers crashes. In October when the UK government has to bail out RBS. And when Man United win the Champions League Final in Moscow in May, or when Manchester City get taken over by Arabs in September. That much we know, but where were you? How did those real events make you feel? Oh, and who do you think was behind Panacea in Alderley Edge getting burnt down?

I also wanted to weave in real people, real situations I witnessed - MIPIM, a conference where Jon Moulton spelled it out, a decadent birthday party I went to as the world crumbled. No real person in the book has words put in their mouth that they didn't say, or is placed in a situation that misrepresents them. They are as part of the physical backdrop as San Carlo Restaurant in Manchester, the Europa Hotel in Belfast and the Alderley Bar and Grill.

The one exception I ought to clarify is Simon Binns. Part of Manchester's business scene at the time was a spiky newspaper called Crains. To airbrush that from the picture of the year would be dishonest, much as I despised it at the time. With Simon's help I actually wrote a scene with him in it, having lunch and interviewing the main character. Although Roger is phenomenally rude about Simon, I think I know him well enough to know he'd take the confected affront at his nosiness and contrary opinions as a compliment. It was certainly intended as one.

The book isn't just a ramble through the archives either. I spent a bit of time talking to people who dealt with builders, helicopter leases, TV companies, banks, lawyers, phone hackers and football club owners. Explaining how quite complex financial instruments worked, but also how criminal gangs sometimes operated. I couldn't resist weaving in a reference to the Learning Journey I did to California.

In the credits I do thank the following fine folk for helping me with the research: Nick Carter, Alec Craig, Andy Shaw, Steve Hoyles and Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former head of MI5. But there are many many more.

There will be inevitable speculation about who the characters are based on. None of them are a direct lift. None. Some are just inventions, some are amalgams of at least two or three people. An acquisitive Indian food conglomerate called Chunky's doesn't leave much to the imagination. But it's a work of fiction - a way of telling a truth through invention.

I would say it's one of the most incredibly exhilarating and challenging things I've ever done. But then I said that about being part of an MBO, setting up a new business and standing as a parliamentary candidate. It's all true.

I'm now working on the follow up. It's called We're All In It Together, set in 2010, and Roger is standing for parliament in a challenging seat. Not that I'd know anything about that.

If you fancy coming to the launch on Friday, click below and reserve your personalised copy.

I get why Labour needs a debate - but not why Jeremy Corbyn is standing for leader

The Labour Party is going to elect a leader. And a deputy leader. And the Labour Party is going to debate the policies and strategies that the winner can take to the electorate. That may take some time. Quite why the first and the third have to be entwined remains a mystery to me.

When Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham or Yvette Cooper are after our vote, we can ask them what they will do about Trident, about tax rates, about a Living Wage, about anything we want. We will ask them such questions because one of them will be our leader. We will not have any kind of expectation that Jeremy Corbyn is going to be elected leader, but amazingly he's going to be asked the same questions. As he was here.

This is the reason he gave Total Politics magazine as his reason for standing: "My entry into all of this was because a number of us on the left of the party thought there ought to be a debate about the economic strategy and how we deal with the issue of austerity…"

We will have a debate. We could always have a debate. It will doubtless spark constituency parties calling meetings, attended by a small number of activists, who will then declare that the massed ranks of the party locally have decided to back one or other candidate. And the local people will look at us and go, "Eh? Who are these people?" I've nothing against an exchange of ideas, of debate, of policies. As a party that process needs to be deep and wide and tall.

But surely, surely, we have to get past this shallow gesture politics, the resolutionary road to socialism.

And while I'm trying to cathartically lift myself from a slumber today, I have another real fear.

Raise this on any number of Labour blogs - as Jonathan Reynolds MP has done today - and look at the comments underneath. Abuse, hysteria and the default response to any suggestion you engage with people who voted Conservative - "You're just a Tory". You can get depressed about social media activity, just as you can get over-excited when it goes in your favour. But this is one lesson we don't need to import from Scotland: if you don't like what someone has to say, just call them a Tory. I don't think Jonathan could have been clearer about where Labour policies, values and campaigns should differ. But no, just chuck the abuse. Worked for the SNP, afterall, I just hoped we were better than that.

I hope we have reached what Jamie Reed called "peak bullshit" in this campaign and won't see any more of the ludicrous Taliban comment in the Telegraph today or we're in for a depressing summer of not getting anywhere at all, whoever we end up electing as leader.