Ten years ago, a corporate governance pioneer and member of the UK Cadbury Committee unveiled Keeping Good Company, a hugely ambitious book that set out to compare and assess corporate governance systems in the US, Japan, Germany, France and the UK. Drawing on yearsof research undertaken when he was an adviser to the governor of the Bankof England, as well asdirect experience on boards of companies big andsmall, it was a remarkable achievement.

Now, in Keeping Better Company, he has revisited the same territory while bringing in Hélène Ploix, a noted French expert, to write on France. The changes in the interim period have been momentous and the challenge this time is heightened by the sheer speed with which the governance target is moving in all five countries concerned.