ALL TO THE GOOD

Although his name is only slightly known outside of banking and brokerage circles on this side of the Atlantic, Lionel Fraser is one of the undisputedly successful and powerful men of The City, that hub of English financial interests. The ober, industrious, determined son of a butler and a maid, he is a classic Horatio Alger hero, British style, and it is no small tribute to him to say that his self-portrait, while hardly breathtaking and seldom--intentionally or otherwise--very revealing, is never stuffy or really dull. It is a rambling, garrulous account of a life filled with hard, steady work and achievements fully earned, of a sensible, satisfying marriage, and business associations mellowing into pleasant friendships over the years. The saving grace, throughout, is a clear sense of the author's having enjoyed every minute of his life, not only while he lived it but even more, perhaps, in recollection as he wrote it down. Business technicalities do creep in, and may begin to bewilder or bore some readers. Politics and other touchy subjects are kept to a minimum; if this tawny old lion couchant has the grasping claws his enemies have claimed, they certainly don't show here.