Published for the first time in flipback - the new, portable, stylish format that's taken Europe by storm.

FUNNY, FRIGHTENING, BREATHLESS AND HEARTLESS, LIAR'S POKER IS A TALE OF HYSTERICAL GREED AND AMBITION SET IN AN OBSESSED, ENCLOSED WORLD.

From mere trainee to lowly geek, to triumphal Big Swinging Dick: that was Michael Lewis's pell-mell progress through the dealing rooms of Salomon Brothers in New York and London during the heady mid-1980s when they were probably the world's most powerful and profitable merchant bank.