Oliver Bullough is the author of Butler to the World: How Britain became the servant of tycoons, tax dodgers, kleptocrats and criminals.

The book does exactly what it says on the tin, as they probably don’t say in Moscow: it tells the story of how, as the British empire declined, we found a new role for ourselves — as a Jeeves to a series of oligarchical Woosters: laundering their reputations, hiding their money offshore, providing them with legal counsel, schools and lordships; and only now realising that perhaps that wasn’t always such a good idea.

Released just last month, in March 2022, It’s hard to think of a more timely or poignant book — and in one of my favourite ever episodes of the podcast, Oliver tells us the story of the Ukrainian gas mogul who bought a defunct tube station; how gambling in this country has become our equivalent of the opioid epidemic; and the mantra that a school pupil taught him that might just sum up his entire career. Enjoy.