Forest Capie's magnificent 920-page tome, "The Bank of England: 1950s to 1979", is reviewed in this issue of Central Banking by Sir Samuel Brittan, but we cannot help first drawing readers' attention to the author's wry and indeed waspish sense of humour. It certainly makes for a lively read, especially when it comes to his pen portraits of characters who were at the Bank in the third quarter of the 20th century.

Some of these characters will be recalled by more mature readers, those who not