Publisher's Synopsis
"In 2006, a book was published called History′s Worst Decisions. Alongside Nero burning Rome to the ground, Eve eating the apple, and the choice not to install a Tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean, was a speech that I mad in 1991. Despite the fact that I didn′t kill anybody, I didn′t do anything illegal, and I didn′t even say anything that I hadn′t said before, that speech caused me to lose my business, my reputation and my fortune."
We′ve all told a joke that we instantly regretted; life normally goes on regardless. But what happens when it doesn′t? What happens when your ′joke′ costs you £500m and destroys your family business? A single joke that causes you to your reputation, your home and your self–respect; a moment that makes you forever known as "...the guy who destroyed his business"?
And what does it take to get up off the floor and get it all back again– the respect, the money, the will to carry on?
Set against the high–rolling excesses of business in ′80s Britain, The rise and Fall.. and Rise Again is a barnstorming tale of personal redemption through sheer grit, as told by one of Britain′s sharpest and most successful businessmen: Gerald Ratner. Yes, you read that right – Gerald Ratner.
"Like Alan Sugar and Laurie Barratt, Ratner is one of that band of Businessmen who made their names by providing ordinary people with items they thought only the rich could afford" – Richard Northedge, City A.M.
