From mere trainee to lowly geek, to triumphal Big Swinging Dick: that was Michael Lewis' 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.

Funny, frightening, breathless and heartless, Liar's Poker is the original story of hysterical greed and excessive ambition, one that is now more potent and enthralling than ever.