Opening in the early 2000s, Alexander Starritt’s novel follows James Drayton and Roland Mackenzie who bump into each other a couple of years after graduating from Oxford. Driven and intensely competitive, even with himself, James is the affable, indolent Roland’s antithesis. He’s a rising star with McKinsey, eyes set on becoming their youngest partner; Roland joins him, getting in by the skin of his teeth. When the 2008 crash hits, they’re sent off to Aberdeen to prepare employees for a swathe of redundancies in the hard-hit oil and gas industry. As a breather from their relentless delivery of bad news, James suggests a weekend mountaineering which becomes more about drinking than climbing beginning a friendship that will underpin the rest of their lives, and a business partnership in which one will complement the other.
Drayton and Mackenzie is unusual in two respects: the theme of enduring male friendship and its setting in the business world. The latter might sound dull but I found this story of ambition, determination and invention quite riveting. It reminded me of State of Happiness, a Norwegian TV series which told the story of the rise of the oil business and through it, modern Norway. Starritt does something similar through James and Roland whose pursuit of the development of renewable energy charts the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Roland and James’s friendship may seem unlikely, but it’s entirely believable, growing deeper with adversity. It’s a tribute to Starritt’s storytelling skills and characterisation that he’s succeeded in making a story of business and entrepreneurship both gripping and enjoyable.

Drayton and Mackenzie is a stunningly ambitious, immediately engaging and ultimately deeply moving novel both about trying to make your mark on the world, and about how a friendship might be the most important thing in life.

there were lots of moments that let me to think in this book. some "life" questions shall we say. it was very real and authentic and although fiction it felt like we could be following some very real characters alongside some realistic issue of their time and ours.
its a slower take on a lot of topics and themes our two are facing both in work and home and in themselves. our two main characters are seemingly very opposite. but when the two meet its a start of something which seems to keep them meeting. coincidence? perhaps not when they find themselves together in a relentless and hard task in the financial crisis which leads them to needing a breaking, taking a hike and wondering whether to join forces both bringing something the other needs to the table.
it was good to read something of a male friendship in this book. i often here woman talk of "what is it with male friendships?" lol. it looks totally different on the outside to most female ones. on coming home you can ask a male what him and his male friend did and then talked about and the answers are sometimes so comical. and then you get the moments of deep empathy and connection like in this book and it seems more touching and something we need to see more of described in these snippets of life type books.
i found the look into the business world alongside it only helped to add weight to what we saw from each characters. and then to their friendship which both eased and endured some pretty harsh time.
i different book for me and i enjoyed reading it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

This is a great book. OK, it's a bit dull early on with all the stuff about the Bear bank going bust etc., and Lehmann Bros and OK, it's a long book but it is a 5 star read.

It doesn't take long to get immersed in the lives of James Drayton and Roland Mackenzie. Their friendship is such a great thing and so well described. I felt I was living their lives with them. Each of them is a loveable character, very different from each other but such great friends, each bringing to the other qualities that the other lacks.

Roland can be very funny, he is irrepressible with his dreams of Japan and his mother from Inverness, his restlessness, people skills, warmth and teasing of James. "Everyone loves Roland" and I loved him too but I also loved James. James is a visionary, confident in many ways but able to identify areas in which he is not so strong (people skills for example) and so determined to try and improve himself.

Andy, a supporting character is very believable too. On occasion I felt that the author was being a bit cheeky, if generally accurate, about Scots but he was born in Scotland so he's allowed. I was not keen on Alice or what happened but no spoilers!

There is a lot of humour and banter in the book and a lot of dry remarks.

I could hardly bear to read the bit set in the Covid pre-vaccination period. It was painful and moved me to tears. From that moment on, everything is bittersweet and the author writes very movingly about loss how the feelings linger on and on. Good epilogue too, to round things off.

There was a point when I wondered where this tale of an unusual friendship between two unlikely characters was going. I found the opening chapters rather slow and lacking in direction. About a third of the way in, I was fully engaged and thoroughly committed to sharing this friendship, the families, friends and colleagues. The dialogue is vital and inviting, filled with banter and deeper observations as the friends meet challenges to their business partnership. I so enjoyed the insight into the banking crisis, how venture capital works – and how the taps are turned on and off! – and the creation of a legacy industry interwoven with this multilayered story of the gift of genuine friendship.