Book review - Mrs Moneypenny: Survival in the City

Mrs Moneypenny's technique is rather different. She charts her nine-year

career, starting as a junior saleswoman and analyst and ending as a manager, largely through

highly personal anecdotes, many of them less than flattering to herself.

More than a few of these revolve around entrenched sexism, such as offensive

personal questions at her job interview with her first employer. She later found

herself doing her male bosses' dry cleaning.

Other tales include how she once lost her bank half-a-million pounds because

a long lunch break seemed preferable to keeping an eye on share prices. Another

time, while living in Tokyo, she bowed through force of habit when being introduced to

the head of the Australian central bank.

The book is free with breezy advice, such as how to prepare for visits to

customers: 'Halitosis is not helpful when you are trying to get as close to your client

as possible. A spare pair or two of tights is essential because nothing matters more

than first impressions. Finally, don't forget your company credit card. '

Interspersed between the anecdotes and homilies is a fair amount of factual

information about what makes the City tick, such as the different things that

salesmen, traders and researchers do all day and how the relentless increase

of regulation has made it harder for bank staff to make money through personal trading.

The upshot is a book that is informative, at least for anyone who wants a

grounding in what the City is all about, as well as entertaining.

While being on the receiving end of sexism, the author can be just as

scathing in return. Male bosses are often arrogant; many equities salesmen have limited

intellect and must be talked down to.

Equally little sympathy is shown to women who complain that the system is

stacked against them. Being a woman must be turned to advantage.

'Make the most of being in the minority,' she writes. 'Use the fact that you have to spend hours being nice to senior corporate clients or institutional fund managers by treating them as attractive men, even if they look like the back end of a bus. It works wonders - trust me, I know.'

In that case why are women paid so much less than men, as she acknowledges

they are? 'Because only people who scream and shout and threaten to leave are ever

paid properly. Women are just not made like this. By nature they have a greater

sense of loyalty to the organisation that employs them.'

This theory that it is all in the genes will not please many people. But Mrs Moneypenny's own book may offer support for the belief that men and women in the City behave differently. It is hard to imagine a man writing a book that has quite so many references to lipstick.

Mrs Moneypenny may think she belongs to the gentler sex, but she can be hard-nosed when she want to be. To succeed, she says, 'you must place no limits on how far you will sink to please your employers or your clients. Quite simple, really.'

'Mrs Moneypenny: Survival in the City' is published by Piatkus, 12.99

Mrs Moneypenny writes a column in Financial News