The Business (novel)

The Business is a novel by the Scottish writer Iain Banks, published in 1999.

Plot introduction

Kate Telman is a 'level 3' executive in the Business, a vast business empire. During her sabbatical year, she comes to suspect that some of her colleagues are stealing from the organisation, and investigates.

Plot summary

The book starts with a 4:37 a.m. phone call from Mike Daniels to Kathryn (Kate) Telman. He has been drugged, and about half of his teeth randomly and expertly extracted, just before an important meeting in Japan.

The Business is a powerful (yet democratic) multinational commercial organisation, secretive (but not too sinisterly so), and very long-lived. It predates the Roman Catholic Church, and descends from a consortium of merchants in the Roman Empire which it even owned for sixty-six days (it hired a man to become emperor, but he lasted less than a month before being assassinated; a reference to the Emperor Didius Julianus). It is now considering taking over a country in order to gain a seat at the United Nations.

The Business

The Business may refer to:

See also

The Business (band)

The Business are an English Oi! band formed in 1979 in Lewisham, South London. Their biggest hit song in recent times, "England 5 - Germany 1", (based on the result of a World Cup Qualifying match in 2001), became a football anthem for England.

History

The band was formed in 1979 by school friends Steven ('Steve') Kent (guitar), Michael Fitzsimons ('Micky Fitz') (vocals), Nicholas ('Nick') Cunningham (drums) and Martin Smith (bass). They played their first gig in front of friends in February 1980, and after taking on Lol Pryor as manager, began performing more often. The band's first release was the song "Out in the Cold" on the A Sudden Surge of Sound compilation album. They played their first Oi! concert in 1981, supporting The 4-Skins, and they became closely associated with the Oi! scene from then on. While the Oi! movement was wrongly labelled as far right and racist (despite the fact that several Oi! bands played at Rock Against Racism concerts), The Business took a stance against political extremism with their Oi Against Racism and Political Extremism ...But Still Against The System tour.

The Business (record store)

The Business is an independent music store in Anacortes, Washington, USA. Founded by Glen DesJardins, it opened on Commercial Avenue in Anacortes in 1978. Occupying a former bank, the store regularly stocks CDs, vinyl records, and audio cassettes, both new and used.

The store also trades in movies, though secondarily to their music business. The location has a smaller collection of movies on DVD and VHS. In addition, the store maintains a selection of music-related posters and artwork for purchase. The Business frequently holds free shows during store hours with locally and nationally known artists from a wide variety of genres.

External links

References