Forget the dull back office of many a financial institution, forget the dreary daily commute to work in grubby carriages on crowded trains. Geoffrey Bignell's memoirs introduce the reader to a kaleidoscope of energetic entertainment and exotic environments. He began work on the eastern staff of the National Bank of India (later to become Grindlays) at a time when the British Empire still occupied a substantial portion of the globe. How he carved himself a memorable career, and rose to a respected position is recounted poetically against the slow fading of that empire. With a wealth of poetic description and mordant observation, the author introduces us to his urbane friends and colleagues; we mingle with the rich and famous; we smell and hear the evocative scents and sounds of a myriad of far-flung corners of the world.