Shares made Simple - A beginner's guide to the stockmarket

If you want to make the most of your money, you will need to venture a little deeper into the investment waters than the shallows of a savings account. Investing in shares is one of the more obvious routes to making a better return on your cash, but the stock market can seem a bewildering place for the uninitiated, and the latest headlines about the Northern Rock debacle and other fall-out from the US sub-prime crisis hardly inspire confidence if you are of a nervous disposition.

Riding to the rescue comes the book Shares made Simple: A Beginner's Guide to the Stockmarket, by veteran financial journalist Rodney Hobson.

As Hobson says in his introduction, "As rising living standards and inherited cash provide assets for investment, no one needs to suffer pitiful bank interest rates when there is real money to be made in sharing the nation's wealth."

Indeed so, and Hobson's book does exactly what it says on the tin, providing a basic "Janet and John" primer about how the stockmarket works.

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Anyone who is a complete novice at investing, or even seasoned financial professionals, who over the years have got used to doing things by instinct and find it hard to explain their trade to clients or back-office staff, will appreciate the back-to-basics approach of this book, which delves under the bonnet of the stock market and describes how it works in simple terms.

Hobson says, "I would urge all new investors and those with little experience to be patient. Learn to walk before you can run. Start at the beginning and be led logically through an easy-to-follow guide to those gold-paved streets. All the baffling issues are dealt with clearly and simply."