“Playing FTSE” – sex and the city in London

There’s always room for one more tell-all bonkbuster by a feisty get up and go female writer in the UK.  Former City trader Victoria Pease now married and living in enviable comfort with her three children and husband who is father of two other children from his previous marriage has written such a tome – “Playing FTSE” (using the pseudonym Penelope Jacobs) .  Described as a “lurid sex in the city bankbuster” it covers falling for the wrong men (not exactly original) for all the wrong reasons.  However Victoria landed on her feet and self published after agents and publishers rejected her novel.  Being catcalled, hit on by men, working long hours and sniffing cocaine with colleagues, is labelled as fiction but there seems to be a lot of truth in it.  Pease has worked for Kleinwort Benson and Merrill Lynch where she got “hit on” (hotly flirted with?)  by men all the time and if you see a picture of her you may not be surprised as she is a flash lithe young woman with a cheeky smile who likes to sport high heeled “party shoes”.  She claims to have been one of the first women to get in on a level playing field with men and the opportunities were the same.  The trick of being attractive clever and reliable meant promotions were in store – just if you didn’t abuse it by sleeping around.  Married men were just as flirty as single men.  Victoria went to Charterhouse boys’ boarding school and has five brothers so we expect she found it easier to cope in a predominantly male testosterone packed environment.  She worked from 7 am to 11 pm every day and at weekends and was earning £150,000 within a year.  See what you think of her book if you have the time. Published by Silverwood at £10.