30 years on From the First Code

This is a book about corporate governance lived. It fills a remarkable gap in the literature of corporate governance. There are many academic analyses of the topic and many bullet-point practitioners' guides setting out the provisions of different codes. This book records the author's experiences in advising boards and sitting on boards as a non-executive director. It is about corporate governance as it actually happens.

It describes practice before the corporate governance revolution begun in late 1992 with the publication of the Cadbury Committee's Code; it recounts reforms at many institutions including the National Trust, the National Theatre and the Wellcome Trust. It celebrates the impact of the UK Corporate Governance Code; it argues against a recent academic call for the Code to be scrapped; and it describes and deplores its recent politicisation.

It covers – always with arresting accounts of episodes personally experienced – the vital principles of good chairmanship, the divide between executive directors and non-executive directors, the time that has to be devoted, the critical significance of the number of people sitting around the board-room table and conflicts and related party transactions.

This is a book on corporate governance from the inside. It illustrates the subject by the telling of true tales.