You can, if you squint, see how this sounded like a good idea. A book that blows the lid off a conspiracy at the very heart of the British government. A cover showing the prime minister, the only honest operator in a dishonest world, surrounded by sinister men in black suits and shades. Above them all, the punchy title, in blood red: “BANK JOB”. Don’t pretend you’re not intrigued.
It’s the details where it all falls down. First there’s the fact that, by dressing these sinister men up as the cast of Reservoir Dogs, the artwork has inadvertently made them look incredibly cool, even though two of them are Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The third, pointing, seems to be Mark Carney, the former Bank of England governor, now PM of Canada; the identity of the others is anyone’s guess.
Secondly, there’s the subtitle: “A short book on how the Bank of England broke the bond market and brought down the government”. Quite apart from the fact that Quentin Tarantino is not making a movie about fiscal policy any time soon, this brings home the inescapable reality this is a book about the doomed budget of 2022.
Then, at the centre of the image, wearing an expression clearly intended to be steely but which reads, alas, as “bored GP receptionist, resenting you”, sits Liz Truss.
New book out on 26th October. Order your copy now – links below! pic.twitter.com/hhzaIhWErP
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) October 20, 2026
The seven-week-wonder’s second book will, apparently, “expose the immense influence wielded by unelected institutions… and reveal how the forces which brought down her government went far beyond economics”. It is, in other words, a book explaining that – while it may have looked like she’d trashed trashed the Government’s credit rating through £45bn of unfunded tax cuts, with consequences we’re all still bearing to this day – it was not, in fact, her fault.
The best bit is that this is being published on Monday, “to coincide with the Burnham Government’s first Budget”. This is obviously a gift to Chancellor John Healey, reminding everyone that, however disappointed we feel, things could be a lot worse.
This is not obviously a gift to shadow Chancellor Andrew Griffith, who as a junior treasury minister at the time was seen on the media rounds defending the government as the pound plunged and gilt yields soared. A tweet from the Labour press team, who must think it’s Christmas, has already mocked up his bit of the acknowledgements.
Others are having fun photoshopping in lettuces or, inevitably, alternative titles that rhyme with “bank job”.
If the book doesn’t change Truss’s reputation, though, it also seems unlikely to change Truss. It’s easy to mock her refusal to accept responsibility for or even notice her own failure, which is why so many of us do it. But peddling conspiracy theories about sinister deep-state forces to the grift economy may also be the only career option left open to her: she’s hardly going to get a plum job at the OECD or Deloitte.
More to the point, given quite how unbelievably embarrassing the finale of her political career proved, this self-delusion may be a valuable defence mechanism. The Bank of England may not have destroyed Truss’s career, but self-knowledge could still destroy Truss.