“Gentleman, earlier today Germany invaded Belgium. This country has a treaty with Belgium, but their neutrality provided for under this has been violated. As a consequence, as from tonight, Britain is officially at war with Germany.” Raiffe and the Angels of Mons, set in the summer of 1914, is based loosely around a British cavalry regiment, the 5th Hussars, and in particular a young officer, Lieutenant Sebastian Raiffe. The story opens on a polo match on a summer’s day. There have been rumblings of disquiet over affairs in Europe since the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but the cavalry officers are intent on enjoying the last of the summer... until everything changes. The men are forced into action, and we follow Raiffe, his friend Archie Alexander and his colleagues, from their carefree pre-war existence to the mobilisation of the British Expeditionary Force and the regiment’s arrival in France as war is declared against Germany. Raiffe finds himself amidst the carnage of modern warfare and is one of the first British officers to taste action. He is involved in the fighting at Mons, Nery, the Marne and the Aisne. Bleak though the fighting is, there are moments of humour and self-sacrifice, and Raiffe experiences wartime Paris, tastes the exhilaration of flying and finds love. Raiffe and the Angels of Mons is a gripping wartime novel, at times harrowing and at others uplifting, that will appeal particularly to fans of military history fiction.

The SRI phenomenon is said to be entering the mainstream of financial intermediation. From a fairly marginal practice promoted or campaigned for by NGO’s and at odds with financial practice and orthodoxy it grew into well formulated policy adopted by a wide range of investors. Academic literature on SRI has also boomed on the assumption that mainstreaming is taking place. However, little thinking has been carried out on questions specifically arising from this alleged ‘mainstreaming’. This book, addressed to those with a scholarly or practitioner’s interest in SRI, starts filling this neglected dimension. Today, one cannot ignore the difficulties of main stream financing. The financial spheres are trembling globally in one of the worst crises since the 1930’s. As a response to the crisis, the intermediation of ‘financial responsibility’ will undoubtedly be the subject of new regulation and scrutinizing. This book looks into what these turbulences will imply for SRI. In view of these circumstances, one might or even should, ask oneself whether the phenomenon was not an empty fad during the exuberant high of financial euphoria that came abruptly to an end with current financial crises. To put it rather sec: are financial intermediaries that promote ‘sustainability’ credible, while it is obvious that some developments in financial intermediation -predictably, as some say- were unsustainable? Is this an opportunity for enhancing SRI because of the strength and superiority it has developed or will it disappear due to a return to financial myopia? This book is the first to question the future of SRI in such a radical way.