Bank in the Balance

"Bank in the Balance" tells the story of Thomas Farrow, Victorian campaigner, writer, newspaper editor and businessman, who achieved national recognition for his public campaign to curb and control the activities of moneylenders at the end of the nineteenth century. He wrote many books on the subject, and founded a banking empire in 1907, which crashed spectacularly in 1920. His arrest and trial were headline news for months. The book begins with his humble origins in Norfolk, and employment with WH Smith, then Leader of the House of Commons. He campaigned with M.P. Robert Yerburgh to promote and establish cooperative banks in urban and rural areas, and exploited the power of advertising throughout his career. The author draws on many family and personal sources to chart his rise and fall, and describes the devastating consequences of his scandalous fall from public hero to disgraced outcast.