This week we talk with James Buckley, European fund manager by day, novelist by night, about his new book, Celebrate Myself, a book that ”penetrates the hallowed halls of business school academia to reveal a simmering world of unbridled lust and unchecked ambition. When tragedy strikes during a riotous evening on the town, the students’ entangled lives become irreversibly altered. Amidst the recrimination and despair surrounding unfolding events, powerful lessons are learned that could never be taught in any classroom.”

Q: First, great title. What’s the relationship between this little known “shoegazing” genre of music that the title is presumably based on, your own beliefs, and MBA-types?
A: Thanks. Shoegazing was described as “the scene that celebrates itself”, hence the title, which I thought had a great read across for MBAs and in particular, the angle I wanted to give the novel. It was also a chance to link two very disparate themes.

Q: Let’s talk about the book itself. From reading Chapter 1 online, I’m reminded of Brett Easton Ellis’ characters and the satire of Tom Wolfe. Where do you put yourself?
A: I read both authors, so that’s extremely flattering! The idea was to write a readable story that people could relate to, even if they’d not done an MBA or ever listened to a Slowdive record in their life. I wanted to end up with a fast-paced black comedy, which isn’t to be taken too seriously, but nevertheless does make some points about the huge self-importance of the business school industry.

Q: And what are those points?
A: I guess they’re found in the tone of the novel, which is very cynical, particularly towards business schools’ tendency towards pomposity. This is a work of fiction though, not a critique of the global business school marketplace. Nothing turns a reader off as quickly as an editorialising writer.

Q: Tell us a little about yourself. And can we find you in the book?
A: Well, you won’t find me injecting my pet dog with Ketamine. I guess there’s a little of me in all the characters, clearly I’m a shoegazing fan and I did an MBA at Cambridge during the dotcom boom. Now I manage European equity funds and live in West London with my wife and young son. No chance to have nights out like my characters’ trip to London, well not anymore!

Q: I’m going to read an excerpt from the book that describes a character in your book, Harry Stanton: “More I thought about what he said afterwards, more it made sense. I’m thirty-one years old with no discernable skills, expensive tastes, a complete lack of personal morality, inestimable self-belief and an aversion to hard work.” This describes a lot of people I know. Why is that?
A: We obviously mix in similar circles! At the risk of sounding like a sociologist I guess morality’s expensive these days. There’s a huge gap opening up within educated professionals, between those reaping the benefits of buoyant financial markets and those that aren’t. The scramble to get into these industries which allow you to leverage your earning potential so obscenely is only going to get worse.

Q: What does that mean if you’re an educated professional that’s not engaged in the pursuit of massive amounts of money? Personally, I sense a lot of resentment within this group.
A: Agreed, and in the absence of a sharp downturn in the global capital markets industry, this resentment’s likely to be an ongoing issue. Currently much in evidence here in London by a raft of outraged media commentary on City bonuses, which are being blamed for huge rises in the cost of living for the urban middle-classes. “Celebrate Myself” is actually set at the end of 2003 though, when this wasn’t such an issue, so the theme is only touched upon lightly. Good material for another novel though…

Q: If you had to come up with a name for your generation, what would it be?
A: “The generation that celebrates itself.”

Q: The FT piece on you mentioned that you met your wife at Cambridge. What else did you get out of B-school, if anything?
A: Good social life, made some good friends. Educationally, it is what it is. Actually surprisingly boring most of the time and certainly overstated in terms of what it can do for you in careers terms in my opinion, least over here in the UK. Much better gig than working for a living for a year (or two) though.

Q: Which type of person would you say is the most sinister to be found at B-school, if you had to pick one?
A: Sinister is not actually a term I would use to describe people I met. Most of them were pretty normal, (with a few notable exceptions). If anything’s sinister, it’s the business schools’ marketing efforts to convince people their lives will be incomplete unless they hand over a shed-load of cash for the privilege of attending one.

Q: I’m a bit surprised that you direct more of your criticism at the schools versus the people who attend them. Is that an accurate read?
A: OK, sinister’s probably too strong a term. Appears to me that leading global business schools now seem to have the kind of brand value and cost inflation more associated with luxury status symbols than educational establishments. Doesn’t mean it’s a bad investment to attend one, hopefully an MBA depreciates less quickly than a Lexus. Again, don’t buy the novel expecting a heavy exploration of these themes. It’s all sex, drugs and death.

Q: What are your hopes for this book? Do you expect the book to become a finance classic?
A: Good question. Certainly don’t expect to give up my day job. If it gets a bit of word of mouth buzz it might sell a few copies. Also some shoegazing luminaries have asked to read it, so that’s cool. We’ll do a launch party and invite MBA alumni’s to come hear two hours of shoegazing. Should be an interesting mix of people.

Q: What advice would you give to other financiers who long to expose their flabby, but creative undersides to the world?
A: Get on and do it. It’s never been easier with the range of forums available to promote your work. Still gotta find the time to write it though.

Q: Thank you.
A: Cheers, thanks for the interest, appreciate it.