Breakfast With Anglo

By 2008, when the Irish property market crashed, Simon Kelly and his father Paddy owed their creditors nearly a billion euro - money they'd borrowed to invest in property development. In 2009, they were the first big developers to admit they were bust - and they encouraged their fellow developers to face reality in the same way. In 2010, in the pages of a national newspaper, Simon Kelly apologized for his part in the long-term damage created by the property bubble.

In the first insider account of Ireland's property and banking disaster, Simon Kelly gives a vivid and unsparing account of how it all worked and why it went sour. He brings us to the muddy fields, humble cafés and grand dining rooms where the deals were made; he explains how it was that debt always led to more debt; and he takes us through the portals of Anglo Irish Bank, the Kellys' main lender.

In an account packed with telling and indiscreet detail, Simon Kelly makes no excuses for ending up bust. He simply shows how it happened - to him, to other developers, to the banks, and to the country. Breakfast with Anglo is a landmark in our national accounting of the present crisis, an essential read for anyone who wants to know how we got into this mess and how we might begin to think about getting out of it.

'An indictment of a system that favoured short-term profits over business and banking fundamentals. Kelly was a key part of that whole system and . . . his book gives a worthy insight into the insanity that has crippled the country' Sunday Tribune

'We will probably never have a Celtic Tiger novel written by Ireland's answer to Tom Wolfe, but if we do it is a fair guess that he or she will turn to Breakfast with Anglo for inspiration' Irish Independent

'The details of Kelly's dealings with Anglo are fascinating' Sunday Times