Bunhill: From high art to high finance

LORD SPENS' 23-year-old daughter, Sarah, enters the world of finance on Monday when she takes the UBS shilling. She joins the stockbroker's equity department, though Bunhill gets the feeling she wants to slip into the role unnoticed. A firm 'no comment' was the reply to queries about her choice of a City career. She had, after all, got a first in art history at Bristol University, and could have been expected to go on to something more . . . well, artistic. When pressed for her reasons, she was only slightly more forthcoming - 'because I think it would be fun'.

Fun is probably not how her father would describe the City these days. Lord Spens - dubbed the Predatory Peer because of his buccaneering ways - has had a pretty miserable few years, despite having cleared his name after the Guinness trial. He's suing the Bank of England for bringing about the loss of his job at Henry Ansbacher, the merchant bank, and is engaged in running battles with the Serious Fraud Office (but then, who isn't).

Not all the Spens are having a rough time of it, though. I hear Sarah's brother, Patrick, a market-maker at Merrill Lynch, has a great time. So maybe he persuaded her the City wasn't all bad.

(Photograph omitted)