The Last Bluff: how Greece came face-to-face with financial catastrophe and the secret plan for its euro exit

The Last Bluff : how Greece came face-to-face with financial catastrophe and the secret plan for its euro exit is a behind-the-scenes political thriller offering the definitive account of Europe’s 2015 dramatic showdown with Greece. The writers, journalists Viktoria Dendrinou and Eleni Varvitsioti, were with us to present it and took us behind the closed doors were the future of Greece and of the euro would be decided.

The book is a wide-ranging, exhaustively-investigated narrative of the most turbulent year in Europe’s recent financial history, revealing one of the continent's best kept secrets: the Plan B in case its weakest link crashed out of the euro. From the election of Europe’s first radical, anti-establishment government in Greece, to the country's dramatic referendum, this a nail-biting tale about power and money, a story about charismatic but often vain characters and politicians who failed to live up to expectations.

Viktoria Dendrinou is a reporter for Bloomberg News in Brussels. She covers EU affairs and specialises in economic issues and the eurozone. Previously she worked for the Wall Street Journal as an EU correspondent focusing on the economy, financial regulation and trade. Before moving to Brussels she spent two years at Reuters Breakingviews in London and was a Nico Colchester Fellow at the Economist. She holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Economics from University College London.

Eleni Varvitsioti is the Brussels correspondent for Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini and SKAI TV, a post she has held since 2014. She began her career a journalist in 2004, when she joined the reporting team of investigative TV program Folders. During her 10 years there, she covered a wide range of issues reporting from Greece, Europe, Latin America, North Africa and the US. In 2016 she was awarded by the Botsis Foundation, Greece’s most prestigious journalism prize, for her work covering the financial crisis. She majored in Journalism and History at Boston University.

Hugo Dixon is a journalist, entrepreneur and campaigner. He is Chair of InFacts and Deputy Chair of the People's Vote campaign. He is also co-founder of CommonGround. He founded Breakingviews in 1999, which he chaired until it was sold to Thomson Reuters in 2009. He writes columns for The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Financial Times, Politico and other publications. He is also author of The In/Out Question: Why Britain should stay in the EU and fight to make it better.

Professor Kevin Featherstone is Head of the Hellenic Observatory, Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor of European Politics at the LSE.

The twitter Hashtag for this event is: #LSEGreece

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