Welcome to FN’s weekly diary column featuring all the best titbits from around the City of London...

Book index
Mark Makepeace stepped down as chief executive of FTSE Russell, the London Stock Exchange’s $16tn index business, a year ago. But the Footsie veteran will be publishing a memoir in November about life inside the share index of the 100 companies listed on the LSE. If its Amazon description is anything to go by, Makepeace’s tome – which is co-written with financial scribbler James Ashton – will be a juicy read. “There have been behind-the-scenes rows with chief executives of some of the world’s largest companies, political in-fighting, diplomatic incidents, and even controversy over a pioneering push into responsible investing that began life as a conversation with James Bond actor Roger Moore... FTSE is a modern British brand recognised the world over, like the Royal Family.” The LSE declined to comment but one wonders who might be the Footsie’s equivalent of Harry and Meghan?