London School of Economics - in Fiction and Popular Culture

In Fiction and Popular Culture

Notable fictitious alumni include President Josiah Bartlet from the television series The West Wing and Andrew Bond, the father of Ian Fleming's James Bond and Jim Hacker, the fictitious Minister and Prime Minister of Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister (in which the Prime Minister is regularly derided by his Permanent Secretary for not having attended Oxford or Cambridge).

The LSE features in the book, Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis. The autobiographical book, charts how Lewis's career in investment banking was begun while enrolled at the university. First published in 1989, it is considered one of the books that defined Wall Street during the 1980s, along with Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, and the fictional The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe.

In John LeCarré's spy novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the detention of two Czech academics at the LSE is ordered by the character Bill Haydon.

The LSE is mentioned in the film The Social Network, as being one of the first three UK universities to have a Facebook network, along with Oxford and Cambridge.

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