When Simon Kelly lost out on the battle for the Jurys hotel in Ballsbridge in Dublin 4, he told me that if he bought 10 separate sites for the money he would make a better return. It opened my eyes to the fact that ego was becoming more and more prominent in how developers bid for land – the fundamentals were taking a back seat to the drive to win sites no matter what the cost.

In his book, Breakfast with Anglo, Kelly outlines how the property-development sector changed over the last 15 years and ultimately became a giant pyramid scheme that collapsed when the credit ran out and almost brought the entire country down with it.

There's an indictment of Charlie McCreevy and Fianna Fáil's policies that drove the sorry saga on and the sham that was Anglo's credit committee – which achieved near mystic status during the bubble – where loans were not turned down because none of the other associate directors wanted the loans they wished to advance declined.

He's also critical of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and the Irish banks for ramping up development land lending just when Anglo was pulling back.

Drama is provided by the realisation of how a deal in London was going wrong and later, how Anglo tried to keep the Kellys afloat as the market started to tank.

It's a pity that some of Kelly's statements are throwaway and not subject to further comment. For instance, he says Anglo was there to loan them money even when the sums didn't stack up – more detail would have been welcome – and later he says that he transferred "whatever money I had" out of Ireland following the collapse of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae without going into enough detail about why he did so and if the money is still there.

Ultimately, the book is an indictment of a system that favoured short-term profits over business and banking fundamentals. Kelly was a key part of that whole system and as such his book gives a worthy insight into the insanity that has crippled the country.