Built on a Lie

He was the most celebrated and successful British investor of his generation – but it was all built on a lie.

Neil Woodford spent years beating the market; betting against the dot com bubble and the banks before the financial crash in 2008, making blockbuster returns for investors and earning himself a reputation of ’the man who made Middle England rich’.

But, in 2019, Woodford’s asset management company collapsed, trapping hundreds of thousands of rainy-day savers in his flagship fund and hanging £3.6 billion in the balance.

In Built on a Lie, Financial Times reporter Owen Walker reveals the disastrous failings of Woodford, the greed at the heart of his operation and the full, jaw-dropping story of Europe’s biggest investment scandal in a decade.

‘Vital financial journalism with heart’ Emma Barnett, broadcaster

‘This is a must read!’ Vince Cable, former leader of the Liberal Democrats

‘Reads like a rip roaring tale of a corporate high wire act’ John McDonnell, former Shadow Chancellor

‘Should be sold with a bottle of blood-pressure pills’ Edward Lucas, The Time