Terminal view was written during 1996 and 1997. looking back this was perhaps one of the most benign periods of the twentieth century, a time when confidence in our globalised, media friendly, e-enabled future was at an all time high. this was a time when many of the people parodied in this book were working overtime to maintain the veil of trust and respectability we were then so fervently buying into. a trust and respectability which, at this stage in 2002, is quite rapidly and correctly being fed through history's shredder. there have been many serious books written on the subject of globalisation and the way big business is stealing an ever increasing slice of our lives, but terminal view simply sets out to poke fun at the issues, treating the subject matter and its participants with the humour and contempt they deserve. the text is unmistakably british in style, for which i make no apologies.