he Bank of England is a uniquely powerful, influential and secretive institution. The decisions which flow from it affect everyone in Britain and many further afield. It is a hugely important cog in the machinery of government, of the City of London and of the global financial markets. Its powers extend far beyond its month-by-month direction of monetary policy to the wilder shores of economic policy, including hundred-billion-pound schemes to prop up Britain's ailing economy. This is the first inside account of the Bank, drawing on interviews with senior current and former Bank staff, that sheds new light on Sir Mervyn King's position and the Bank's role in the financial crisis, including Northern Rock, the banks' billion-pound bailouts and disagreements with the Treasury over Quantitative Easing. It is a superbly written and well-researched tale of King's 'strong, controlling and often inflexible personality', of Machiavelianism at the heart of the financial markets and the extraordinary power that this most secretive and remarkably autonomous institition wields.