The Umbrella Men
by Keith Carter
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
A witty and acerbic novel for our times about corporate greed, the
hubris of bankers, contradictions of the clean energy economy and
their unintended consequences on everyday people.
Finance, environmentalism, rare-earth mining and human frailties collide in a
complex of flawed motives. We follow Peter Mount, the self-made Chief
Executive of a London-based rare-earth mining company as he and his
business are buffeted by crisis-torn Royal Bank of Scotland and by
his own actions, real and imagined. Meanwhile in Oregon, Amy Tate and
her group of local environmental activists do their contradictory
part to undermine a component of the green economy, unwittingly
super-charged by the Chinese state. The repercussions of events in
pristine Oregon are felt in the corporate and financial corridors of
New York and London with drastic consequences. This is a deeply
involving novel about the current workings of capitalism,
miscommunication, causes and unexpected effects, love and survival.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaSOyv_mIFQ?feature=player_embedded]
Keith Iain Carter was born in Scotland in March 1959, second son of Marian
van Westendorp and Ralph Carter. He attended a variety of bog
standard state schools in northern England and in 1978 went up to
Cambridge to read Economics, taking a First in 1981 when he was
elected a Scholar – too late to enjoy the privilege of walking on
the grass.
Other than corporate annual reports, he has not previously been published,
unless you count a letter printed in Business Week deploring the
widespread use of the word ‘wannabe’ and this quote in Investors
Chronicle: “I used to be a banker, then I went straight”.
As an investment banker Keith worked for three now-disgraced
institutions – he denies that any causation is associated with this
correlation – Lloyds, Drexel Burnham Lambert and NatWest (RBS). A
corporate financier, he ended up by specialising in pharmaceuticals
and, in 1998, was part of a team acquiring a small vaccine business
from GSK. As CEO he took the company public in 2004. Since 2010
Keith has worked as a business consultant to healthcare companies and
as a writer, which he prefers.
Keith lives in London, Yorkshire and aboard a boat currently in Greece. He
is a French-speaking Europhile who also loves America, travel,
politics and economics, reading and writing, music, sailing of all
kinds and food and drink.
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