Ray Perman Sir Walter Scott – His Financial Rise & Fall

A lecture at the Library of Mistakes by Ray Perman entitled Sir Walter Scott – His Financial Rise & Fall.

In 1825 Sir Walter Scott was at the height of his powers. His day job, as a principal clerk to the Court of Session, paid well and left him considerable time to write.

He was a man of property, with an elegant New Town house and a country estate at Abbotsford, and he was a businessman – chairman of two companies and director of others. By the beginning of 1826 he was financially ruined and facing huge debts.

Ray Perman, former financial journalist, is author of HUBRIS: How HBOS wrecked the best bank in Britain. He is currently working on a financial history of Edinburgh, from the Darien disaster to the credit crunch of 2008, to be published in the autumn.