MONEY NOW so pervades the world that few people question it, but as James Buchan argues in his persuasive new book, the acceptance of money has brought the world to a condition of unprecidented instability. For there is nothing to money but faith, which can evaporate in an instant and has done so repeatedly in history.

From an extensive knowledge of literature, finance, business and philosophy, Buchan shows how money has colonised the world both in its forms as a coin, banknote or electronic book entry, and as an idea of happiness. In the process, money has dethroned other purposes of human existance, transformed our relationships with one another and the external world, and subjected us to an authority of which few of us are even aware.

Passionate, humane, profound, light-hearted and sincere, Frozen Desire is one of the most original works of thought to appear in Britain for years