Jay Michaelson spent 22 years as a Lloyd s insurance broker, specialising in the placement of reinsurance contracts, both within Lloyd s and the international reinsurance markets. He brings an insider s approach to Lloyd s, as an institution, although previously shrouded in respect, being beset in the 1980s and 1990s by many and diverse commercial pressures.

The author brings, through this fiction, a portrait of the various conflicts resulting; reflecting Lloyd s establishment hierarchy known in the trade; as the Market Mafia, the intrigues known as the Magic Circles and the laissez-faire buccaneer spirit of many of the market personalities, with various underwriters being known in the market by their pseudonyms such as Goldfinger, Tricky Dicky and Betty Boo.

He spent his childhood in England, being brought up through the English public school system and then went on to Paris for further studies. As a result of his background and education, he believed stalwartly in the primary insurance principle and ethic of Uberrima Fides (With Utmost Good Faith).

He became an investor, a Lloyd s Member commonly referred to as a Name (as in days of old when Lloyd s was situated in a coffee shop in the City of London, each Member of Lloyd s would sign his name at the bottom of the insurance policy).

From what he has subsequently ascertained, he was motivated to write this novel. For some years, he has lived in the Caribbean Florida, the Bahamas and Havana, Cuba and has now returned to London.