I’ve covered nine financial crises since the 1960s. Here’s what I learned

From the devaluation of sterling in 1967 to Brexit uncertainty, our economics commentator reflects on how Britain has diced with fiscal catastrophe

I wanted to be a journalist from an early age - the age when most of my (male) contemporaries out there in west Wimbledon had set their sights on becoming footballers or engine drivers.

At Wimbledon College I produced an underground (handwritten) newspaper and dabbled in undergraduate journalism at Cambridge in the early 1960s. In those days, although I read economics - because I wanted to understand politics - I had no idea that I would take up economic journalism as a career. But the field began to narrow when I heard the Financial Times took one or two recruits straight from university.

Related: In brief: Happiness; Nine Crises; The Wolf and the Watchman - review

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