Swift Press Drayton and Mackenzie Will have you hooked The Times Best Summer Books.

by Alexander Starritt

For the first time since university, James and Roland's paths through life – one drawn in straight lines, the other squiggled and meandering – began to cross…

James Drayton has always found things too easy. By the time he leaves university, he's still searching for a challenge worthy of his ambitions, one that will fulfil the destiny he thinks awaits him.

Roland Mackenzie, on the other hand, is an impulsive risk-taker, a charismatic drifter with boundless enthusiasm but a knack for derailing his own attempts to get started in life.

When a chance encounter in a pub reunites these old acquaintances, it sets them on an unpredictable course through the upheavals of the 21st century, and triggers an unlikely alliance. Against the backdrop of the financial crash and its aftermath, they strive to create something that outlasts them, something that will matter.

Drayton and Mackenzie is a stunningly ambitious, immediately engaging and ultimately deeply moving novel both about trying to make your mark on the world, and about how a friendship might be the most important thing in life.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Business

512 pages, Hardcover

Published July 3, 2025

About the author

Alexander Starritt is a Scottish-German novelist, journalist and entrepreneur. Starritt was educated at Somerville College, Oxford. He came to public attention in 2017 with the release of his novel The Beast.

Reviews

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drayton and Mackenzie tells the story of Roland Mackenzie and James Drayton, students who meet at university whilst in the same rowing team but who drift apart shortly after. As the years roll by Roland and James begin to collide with increasing frequency until they begin to collaborate on a shared job at the same firm. It's the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

There was something about these two that drew me in. It does evolve very slowly and took me a little time to truly fall for this unlikely pair but I devoured the novel and by the end, feeling utterly wrung out, I could barely put it down.

Alexander Starritt has given us two disparate but wonderful characters. The basis of their story is akin to that of Zuckerberg and Savarin as they began Facebook, but in the renewable energy/engineering sphere.

You don't need to know anything about scientific breakthroughs or anything engineering based. I don't and it all made sense to me. There's several cameo appearances by politicians and tech giants which gives the narrative a feeling of reality. The characters of Drayton and Mackenzie are very different but they are both very likeable. By the end of the book I was heavily invested in their friendship.

An excellent novel. I loved it. If you like a buddy book with several twists and turns thrown in or you just enjoy a really well written novel about the state of the world in the past 20 years you'll love this.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Swift Press for the advance review copy. Most appreciated.

[Lucy Ellis-Hardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll be honest — I struggled with this book at times. For me, it isn’t fast-paced; it’s more of a slow burn. There’s a lot of character development and detailed discussion of the business world, including the financial crisis. It’s a subtle and restrained novel, and many readers will appreciate that. The friendship between the two main characters is central to the story, as is the search for authenticity in relationships, in work, and in the pursuit of meaning in life. I received an advanced review copy from NetGalley and this is my honest review.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was certainly long and probably longer than it needed to be, but I thought it was a really well done evocation of male friendship, as well as as of the business climate of the last 20 years.

[Daniel KML · Rating 3 out of 5]

First time in 15 years that a novel makes it to the FT best business book of the year longlist.

Unfortunately it is a cringey best-sellerish novel. If you haven’t had experience working at mckinsey or struggling through funding rounds with startup founders (both instances happen to fit my case), I would advise to skip it.

[Michael Lynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb prose, ambitious in scope, prescient and moving. What else do you want in a novel, and why didn’t it make the Booker list?

[Marit Gillam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a sweet book. Follows two Oxford grads through McKinsey and a startup whilst navigating major global events such as the GFC and brexit. Was moved by the characters and their friendship/business partnership with each other.

[Jayne Southern · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a point when I wondered where this tale of an unusual friendship between two unlikely characters was going. I found the opening chapters rather slow and lacking in direction. About a third of the way in, I was fully engaged and thoroughly committed to sharing this friendship, the families, friends and colleagues. The dialogue is vital and inviting, filled with banter and deeper observations as the friends meet challenges to their business partnership. I so enjoyed the insight into the banking crisis, how venture capital works (the old boys' network?)– and how the taps are turned on and off! – and the creation of a legacy industry interwoven with this multilayered story of the gift of genuine friendship.

[William Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came by this book in an unusual way for me—one of my good buddies and reading pals asked if I’d read it because it was on a Financial Times reading recommendation list, and it struck him because it was a work of fiction. Not exactly typical. It intrigued me enough to try and get a copy, and while it took two sessions / borrowings to get through it, I found it pretty fascinating.

The story follows two men who, after casual acquaintanceship at Oxford, end up business partners in renewable energy against the backdrop of the 2008 financial recession and into the COVID pandemic. One is a relentless striver, socially inept enough to need a handler; the other a feckless dreamer who barely scrapes through university but with charm and people skills to spare. This unlikely duo end up forced together at first in the professional sphere but develop a partnership, and later a true, lasting friendship, that transcends the humor of their Odd Couple energy.

There is a lot of engineering and finance talk, which is presented in a very accessible way, and having real life events that parallel my own adult experiences brought this to life in many ways. This is almost non-fiction fiction, in some aspects; this reads beautifully but almost like a journal that someone has rendered into narrative prose. It is spare but evocative and feels authentic.

As is not surprising to people who know me, the emotional payoff is what I’m looking for in a book. The Roland and James relationship is one of my recent favorites in fiction. They are endearing and frustrating by turns, just like real people. I was truly moved and devastated by the ending (reader beware).

My reason for not giving this five stars is largely that the plot is actually quite boring. It’s the characters that make this shine as much as it does. Maybe others who appreciate the venture capital cycle more than I do will find their exploits inherently interesting, but the bulk of the narrative is James stressing about finding funding for his tidal energy project and Roland cleaning up his social messes as he bulls his way through the proverbial China shop. Given a little more depth of plot, this could be a truly great book in my estimation.

[Luc Parrot · Rating 2 out of 5]

this should not have won prizes, I was baited by reviewers at the FT

[Madhu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book, talks about the friendship and relationship between James and Rolland. Chances bring them together and change their lives. The character development of both the characters is seen throughout the book. This book capitalizes on invention and friendship

[Josh S · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the two main characters. The book was kind of strange - it was a straightforward friendship story but centered around a business. It was a good idea but the business itself was kind of boring. And it was long. I think 600 pages should have either super compelling characters (like skippy dies) or a more epic backdrop (like war and peace). But it was interesting overall and often humorous. And actually pretty accurate on the business side. Three and half stars haha!

[Sophie Patrikios · Rating 5 out of 5]

Agree with other reviews, it’s a charming book and/but disconcertingly hard to define - huge long chunks of well-written explanations about real life events, sudden diversions away from the two main characters to give us an insight into someone we have barely met before or will again. But at the heart of it, I guess it’s a love story, and a lovely one at that.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was going to give this 5* until I reminded myself of the things I didn’t like about it - and they were some pretty big things! I still kinda loved it though.
The eponymous (James) Drayton and (Roland) Mackenzie first meet at Oxbridge, then again as junior grunts at McKinsey and later found a startup together. James initially comes across as a careerist robot, probably somewhere on the autism spectrum, sacrificing everything at the altar of success. Roland is his complete opposite, one of these people who just kinda coast through life with no plan and completely at the mercy of their personal charisma. Somewhere along the way they become each other’s best and probably only friends, even though Roland lets himself be dragged along in the wake of James’s ambition and later thanks him by marrying his ex (James’s first and only girlfriend, mind you. Ooooof.)

I started my career at a place very similar to McKinsey - different industry, same vibe - so I would’ve loved it anyway simply because it’s pretty rare to find fiction set in this sort of scene. It’s kinda hard to write about: yes, those are the “masters of the universe”, but the day-to-day job is just emails, spreadsheets and presentations like any other white collar job.
The book manages to not get bogged down in the details of the drudgery, not when they’re at McKinsey and not when they’re navigating the startup world either.
It’s so well written, the characters felt so real - I almost felt like they were people I’d known from after work drinks. When I got annoyed with them, it wasn’t because of bad writing but because I wanted to grab them and shake some sense into them as if they were real people who keep making dodgy choices.

I do have to mention the drawbacks though.
1. It’s much too long - novels like this should never be longer than 350ish pages and it ended up feeling too self-indulgent.
2. I didn’t buy the ending. Someone like Roland would've never gotten their shit together. And poor James man, was that really necessary?
3. The random chapters from the POV of real people and just in general the appearance of famous businesspeople and so on (Elon Musk??) - cringe. So cringe. None of that should’ve been included. We get it Starritt, you’ve seen/ read Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis — and Themselves, there was no need to pretend you came up with that yourself. Same with copying the Lehman Bros scene from The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine 1:1. How did this get past the editors? It made the book seem like Too Big to Fail/ Big Short/ general business nerd fan fiction, very weird. And completely unnecessary, because we didn’t need all those asides for the great friendship story we already had!

So yeah, there goes the fifth star. Still one of the better books I’ve read this year. Great writing talent. Cut down on the compulsive shoehorning in of real people and it would’ve landed in my best of 2025 list. Alas…

[Simon Rockman · Rating 5 out of 5]

There can be very few readers who can connect with this book in as visceral way as I can. Indeed I may be unique in having both unexpectedly woken up in the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead (not as the book says Belsize Park) and being familiar with the Orcadian island of Eday where much of the action takes place. I have a business on Eday co-located with the tidal and hydrogen generation which is central to the plot.

Perhaps that is why I enjoyed the book so much. At its heart it’s a buddy story. The Drayton and Mackenzie of the title are James Drayton and Roland Mackenzie, the story of the relationship between the two of them, working and loving together. Set through the banking crash and covid crisis it looks at how both their personality flaws and external factors influence their friendship.

While my familiarity with the technical side of their work led me to pick holes, I think I most enjoyed the story because I liked the characters. An engagement that led me to laugh out loud and stifle tears in the rise and fall of the plot.

Something that annoys me is when a novel mentions a make of car but doesn't say what model it is. Part of the plot revolves around a Lamborghini. Given the time period of the book, it might be a Murciélago LP640, but as the car is purple I'd like to think it was a Diablo SE30. Although to be fair you would be unlikely to be able to rent an SE30

Either way saying that the name of the car was derived from a Spanish fighting bull would suit the narrative.

It’s nicely written, good rhetorical devices and well enough paced, at least once they get going. The story captures how wild the waters in Orkney are, but doesn’t capture how windy the place is. It’s an archipelago with out trees. Particularly Eday is very rugged. There is also a sense of isolation, with among the lowest population densities in Europe. I wonder if author Alexander Starritt visited the mainland of Orkney but not Eday, which would be a bit like saying you’d been to Dublin so you knew what Ireland was like. I rather think that if he’d been to Eday there would have been a mention of puffins, orcas and the Northern lights.

The epilogue is a bit far-fetched.

But then the book isn’t written for me, for the one person who is familiar with a particular 800 bed hospital and an island with a population of 150 which is 600 miles away. It’s a book to be read on a beach far away from either place and in that it succeeds.

[Nigeyb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drayton and Mackenzie (2025) by Alexander Starritt got a rave review in the latest issue of (the wonderful) Strong Words magazine so I decided to give it a go.

I was engrossed from the first page. I loved its ambition, contemporary scope, and, the exploration of male friendship. On one level it's a beautiful love story about two mismatched men, James Drayton and Roland Mackenzie, from their time at Oxford University in the early 2000s through to the 2020s.

One man is a high achieving genius and the other an impulsive, self sobotaging people person. A chance encounter reunites them after university, leading to an unlikely business partnership in the innovative and adventurous world of tidal energy and hydrogen fuel for rockets.

Other than that the less you know the better.

It's fab

4/5



The blurb....

For the first time since university, James and Roland's paths through life – one drawn in straight lines, the other squiggled and meandering – began to cross…

James Drayton has always found things too easy. By the time he leaves university, he's still searching for a challenge worthy of his ambitions, one that will fulfil the destiny he thinks awaits him.

Roland Mackenzie, on the other hand, is an impulsive risk-taker, a charismatic drifter with boundless enthusiasm but a knack for derailing his own attempts to get started in life.

When a chance encounter in a pub reunites these old acquaintances, it sets them on an unpredictable course through the upheavals of the 21st century, and triggers an unlikely alliance. Against the backdrop of the financial crash and its aftermath, they strive to create something that outlasts them, something that will matter.

Drayton and Mackenzie is a stunningly ambitious, immediately engaging and ultimately deeply moving novel both about trying to make your mark on the world, and about how a friendship might be the most important thing in life.

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt this was a multi genre book that covered a lot but a great story. A coming of age story of 2 friends James Drayton and Roland McKenzie.

The 2 meet at uni but aren’t really friends. James is studious, borderline obsessive over being the best in business. Secures a job at McKinsey after uni. Roland a bit more free spirited wants to teach English in Japan but pure laziness when he doesn’t enter his application in time means he ends up in India. On a return to England he bumps into James and tell him about the educational standards in India. James comes up with a business plan to raise the standards, McKinsey take on the project and he hires Roland to work in his team. They butt heads as they have 2 different working styles. When the India project is closed at the time of the financial crisis in 2008, they are sent into oil companies to restructure them. Through this networking, James comes up with a new business to create hydrogen through tidal energy. They both leave McKinsey to set up the new company. We then follow them as they grow the business and navigate the economic market. They get investment from Peter Thiel and praise from Elon Musk.
James meets Alice, his first girlfriend but they don’t work out. She gets with Roland instead. James is ok with this, he’s more business minded anyway. He even is best man at their wedding. James also finds out he has type 1 diabetes so learns to slow down after being in a diabetic coma. The business becomes more successful.
Then Covid hits and James dies of Covid due to his diabetes. But before he became ill he had told Roland he wanted to change the business to selling electrolysers as this would make more money. He also wanted to leave the business as it was no longer challenging him. They’re both already incredibly rich.
Roland runs the company after he dies but in grief starts off badly and doesn’t properly explain the reason for the business switch to electrolyers which alienates some of the long standing members of the team.
The epilogue is 20 years in the future, his daughter Kate inherited all of James’s worth as his goddaughter and they are launching space rockets from Scotland. Roland is the FTSE 100 most successful and long standing CEO.

It’s a business book - the real life economic crises, climate change and clean energy businesses. There’s a love story and the chapter when James dies is heart breaking. It’s ultimately a story of male friendship that was beautifully told

[Haxxunne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful sneaking novel on friendship and obsession
—
In this wonderful novel that sneaks up on you, we follow two young men from the moment they reconnect after university to the eventual outcome of their obsessions and collaboration. James Drayton and Roland Mackenzie couldn’t be more different: James is a genius, looking for a problem to apply his mind; Roland is a maverick, unable to focus on anything that lasts except for developing friendships. When they finally meet as equals, their joint plans to make the world a better place are beset with pitfalls and challenges, but through it all, their unusual friendship makes it all possible. When tragedy strikes, everything they are to each other and all that they have done will be tested to breaking point, and success, once assured, will be on a knife’s edge.

This is what a great novel by a young white male writer can be about, the specifics of being all those things, the good and the bad, the stupid as well as the wise. Set against the fluctuating world from the financial crisis of the late Aughts to Brexit, and on to the Covid era, this is a big, happy novel that doesn’t shy away from big ideas, of great men (and women) in history (with cameos from global names from the various periods), of climate change and renewable power, of Silicon Valley and its anointed kings. But at heart, what this novel is about is the titular friendship, how two disparate characters find in the other the support and joy they need to build the best possible world that they can dream of.

[D B Minter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drayton and Mackenzie by Alex Starritt is a terrific read, incorporating big business, political journalism, scientific inventions and personal development. But at the heart of the book is the story
of two young men - students at Oxford uni - James Drayton and Roland Mackenzie. James, a brilliant scholar without people skills, contrasts with Roland, who is a bit of a wastrel - flunking his exams but is a charmer and good communicator.

The pair, post uni, accidentally get to work at the same management consultant company with James being Roland's team manager. James eventually starts a business and reluctantly drags Roland in with him as a partner, although James is the brains of the outfit. Over the years, taking in the financial crisis of 2008 and the 2020 covid pandemic, the company grows into a big beast of industry, with the two chalk and cheese partners, becoming close friends despite their different personalities. Dramatic events happen that deeply affect the two and their ongoing relationship.

The latter part of the book changes tack in some ways, which i found slightly disconcerting, becoming a different sort of book. All in all, the book is almost too ambitious, taking in too many
subject, nevertheless, I couldn't put the long book down and I loved it!

[Posey · Rating 5 out of 5]

At its great big heart, Drayton and Mackenzie by Alexander Starritt is about a friendship equal parts extraordinary and ordinary. It’s additionally a really fine example of literary fiction; a story centered on characters who carry the story rather than the story leading them. I certainly don’t believe I’d become as cued, nonetheless invested, in the state of the clean energy industry in the early 2000’s if Starritt didn’t convince me to invest in James and Roland’s story. Lastly, it says something Drayton and Mackenzie is the singular piece of fiction on The Financial Times Best Books of 2025 list. A piece of “mere fiction” amongst works on real-life entrepreneurs, the current state of the world economy, and predictions of the future.

James Drayton and Roland Mackenzie were such fully created characters, who made me laugh at, cheer on, and hope for them from their seemingly inconsequential first meeting at Oxford to when they were making ‘big boy’ deals as business partners. I savored all the moments, and I know I will someday wish I could return to the time before I first read Drayton and Mackenzie so I can experience it for the first time again.

[Brian Gowthorpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this book from a mention in the Guardian, not having come across the author before. There’s a TEDx tell of him talking about his time as a headline writer on the Daily Mail, which is worth watching.

It’s unusual for me to read something in the same year it was published, but I was gripped by this relatively long novel. It deals well with the experience of being grunts with degrees from top universities in management consultancy, McKinsey in this case. I liked the use of real businesses rather than thinly disguised equivalents and the 2007-8 crash is very well explained. I liked the involvement of Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, which put their enormous achievements in perspective. Overwork and the stresses it creates was also very well examined.

But ultimately this is a book about friendship, leadership, work and the huge challenges to starting an innovative business. Relationships outside work are thoughtfully handled. Alice could have been a cipher but is well-realised and sympathetic. Bravo!

[James Redner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite new book in 2025, by a wide margin.

This novel snuck up on me. Midway through, it was good, but a couple of books on my shelf were calling me, and I wasn’t sure I cared enough about the leads to keep going (or put it to the side for a bit), but I’m glad I did. By the end, I was wiping my eyes and marveling at how deeply it had burrowed into my heart.

Starritt’s portrayal of male friendship is the most affecting I’ve read in years. The relationship between James Drayton and Roland Mackenzie unfolds slowly, shaped by ambition, failure, and the quiet moments that define a life. It’s not flashy, but it’s honest, and that honesty hits hard.

Too bad it’s not available in the U.S., I had to order it from a UK retailer, but it was worth every bit of effort. A weeper of a novel, and one I’ll be recommending for a long time.

[Hugues de Maupeou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply a fantastic book. My favourite fiction of the year. Starritt's prose is gripping and the depth of his characters development left me reminiscing about each of them long after I turned the last page.

I loved how realistic the storyline felt, in large part because it's interwoven with all the crises from the last 20 years ('07 financial crisis, Brexit, Trump, COVID). Great and unexpected cameos from Ben Bernanke and Mario Draghi.

Overall, it's a beautiful story of commitment in work and friendship, and what it means to find meaning for each.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real page turner

It’s hard to find modern books with male protagonists, written by male authors… Not that these are requirements for me to read a book, but it seems like publishing is completely dominated by and for women and/or victim stories these days. It was so refreshing to find this book, which I literally couldn’t put down. I’m still crying like a baby, who knew! A fantastic story about kismet, compromise, and big dreams… fulfilled and forgotten. Best book I’ve read in years.

[Tajeshwar Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

If only I could rate this higher! Among the best fiction reads for me. Loved the characters, plot and the humane angle behind this entrepreneurial and male friendship story. Story does take some time to build up over the years but gets really intriguing by the latter half of the book by which felt deeply vested in the plot. Peter Theil and Elon Musk guest appearances along with the intertwining of real life events to the story were an icing on the cake for me.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was brilliant! When explaining it to others it sounds like a dull story, with the plot focussed on upper-class kids, business and the economy. But the friendships, humour and intimacy kept me hooked! The book was also ambitious in its timeline, spanning huge global events from the 2018 recession right up to present day. As another reviewer says, it's the only portrayal of covid that doesn't make you want to hurl (even if it is crazy sad 😭)

[Michela Capello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something really moved me about this book - beautiful observations about growing up, friendship and the individual quirks that make us who we are. Setting the story against the backdrop of the UK from the financial crash of 08 to Brexit and Covid was SO well done.
The characters were so thoroughly thought through and supported by an engaging narrative.

It’s not the most exciting read, but it has a lot to offer in its own special way

[John]

Forrest Gump meets every financial and political misery of the noughties, only with super-privileged Oxbridge graduates. Left with a feeling of what the point of it all was, which ties in nicely with the novel itself, but doesn't necessarily feel satisfying as a reader of (just) over 500 pages. Great wit in the writing.

[MadeleineWP · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book aloud to my husband. We laughed, we cried and we gasped with surprise. What a narrative. Beautifully crafted. Takes its place alongside other great novels dealing in part with business such as those by Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities.

[Arc888 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes, the universe hands you a perfect book. This one was on two consultants who quit their job for a start-up in Scotland, which obviously scratched an itch. But aside from surface-level applicability, it was sharp, thoughtful, and human. Shout-out The Economist for one the best book recs of the year.

[Dan Cleary · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot wanders aimlessly, but therein is a relationship dynamic highlighting how character strengths and weaknesses can be grounds for companionship that provides fulfillment beyond anything that can possibly be self-sourced.