If there was a star born of last autumn's financial meltdown, it was the BBC's business editor Robert Peston. He was hardly off the radio or TV, while his blog became essential reading. But here, quicker than you can say "credit crunch", it's another BBC heavyweight, economics editor Hugh Pym, who is first out of the blocks with a book about those events.

Written with Financial Times journalist Nick Kochan, the opening chapter is an easy-to-digest summary of what went wrong and how the lending bubble in financial markets got out of control. They trace the roots back to the 1980s and pick out US housing policy as a major factor.

More pertinently, they highlight recent changes in UK banking. In 2001, British banks were lending more or less what they took in deposits, but by 2008 they had racked up a surplus of lending over deposits of some £700bn.

Elsewhere the book is essentially an extended set of Frequently Asked Questions. If not always riveting, it answers questions succinctly and explains the complex economic theories behind the headlines.