For the first time since the Irish financial meltdown comes a book not from an economist or a journalist but from a self-employed Irishman who found himself in the eye of the storm. Ireland is insolvent because of mismanagement, corruption and greed. We have been bombarded with and infuriated by reports of self-serving bankers, developers and government ministers.

To date, the general public has not had an account of the devastating effect of this crisis on Irish-owned businesses as it tries to pick up the pieces. Irish businesses are trying to cope with insolvency, arrears, and liquidation - the rate of suicide among the self-employed in Ireland has trebled in the last three years. George Mordaunt believes that many Irish businesses are now dysfunctional not because of the recession but because of the reaction of business owners to the recession - and specifically, their reaction to their banks. With raw honesty, he outlines the effect this reaction has had on himself, his young family, his marriage and his business.

He shares his most private moments of despair and fear yet demonstrates how business owners can salvage their businesses and that we now have a core responsibility to get back to basics at all levels of Irish life.