Ayres, the Los Angeles correspondent for The Times of London, previously wrote "War Reporting for Cowards." From the flap for "Death by Leisure: A Cautionary Tale," his newest:

All Chris Ayres wanted was everything: a supermodel girlfriend, a cliff-top bachelor palace, a fleet of chrome-rimmed SUVs. The way he saw it, nothing could stand in his way. Nothing, that is, except for being broke, prematurely bald, and living in a remote sheep-farming village in Northern England.

So he moved to Los Angeles — just in time for a man named Alan Greenspan to invent cheap money....Before he knew it, Ayres had a million-dollar home and a credit-fueled life of leisure and luxury. Not to mention a cushy job as the showbiz correspondent of a London newspaper.

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But of course none of it could last. Ayres tap-danced around one catastrophe after another, but finally, the apocalypse caught up with him.

Looks like fun. Ayres gave up the blog awhile back but here are his columns.