John Gubert, who retired as head of HSBC Securities Services at the end of last year, remains a familiar sight at custody events all over the world. Indeed, he was spotted at Sibos in Boston earlier this month.
But retirement has clearly freed up some time for the great man. On 1 November his debut novel the first of a promised trilogy will be published. ‘One Step to Danger’ is described by the publishers as ‘a fast moving thriller, bringing together the worlds of crime and high finance. It is a true work of fiction that could become a reality.’
Gubert says he conceived the characters, ideas and plots on 40-plus flights around the world over the last few years. ‘I was not as much of a workaholic as some of my colleagues thought when they saw me typing away on my PC over the Atlantic or Pacific,’ jokes Gubert. ‘And the places in the book are all ones I know well from my travels.’
With a pair of Italiansounding hoods delivering a narrative riddled with fraud, sex and violence, it is just as well John Gubert flew business class. But it is not just the time in the air that counted. What encouraged Gubert most, it seems, is the enthusiasm for his fiction of a journalist wife, and an undergraduate son.