Aularian Authors: Linda Davies (1982, PPE)

Linda Davies (1982, PPE), multi-prize winning, best-selling author, discuss her career as an investment banker turned writer, why she felt she had to write 10 Things Everyone Needs to Know about Money and the fascinating research which has prompted the follow-on book, 10 Things Every Woman Needs to Know about Money.
Linda Davies read PPE at the Hall before going on to become the first woman to work in the UK corporate finance department of the US investment bank, Bankers Trust, in 1985. She followed this with a short stint at Samuel Montagu before returning to the Americans in the form of Credit Suisse First Boston. During her City career, her curiosity led her to work in leveraged buyouts, UK mergers and acquisitions, Eastern European venture capital, and ultimately junk bond trading - the common factor being an understanding of risk. After eight years Linda escaped to write financial thrillers, launching her career with the global bestseller Nest of Vipers, which sold over 3 million copies, has been published in over 30 territories and has been optioned multiple times. Linda has had 12 books published internationally, six thrillers for adults, one non-fiction narrative memoir about her experience of being kidnapped and held prisoner in Iran, and five children’s books including the multi-prize-winning Longbow Girl.
In Michaelmas 2018, Linda became the Hall’s inaugural Writer in Residence, a position she greatly enjoyed which involved tutoring, giving talks, and working on her own books, one of which, 10 Things Everyone Needs to Know about Money, will be published in March 2021. Dimitri Tsomocos, Professor of Financial Economics and Fellow in Management at the Hall and at Saϊd Business School describes it as “an inspiring, heterodox, nonconformist journey to the world of money. A must read.”