Ambition's End Characters

Mark Watson - the central character

Tall, good looking, instantly attractive to women with a natural business acumen and a flair for wheeling and dealing.

Ruthless in his pursuit of his business goal he is willing to trample on anyone who gets in his way. Merciless and determined he uses and discards people to suit his purpose and is single minded in his climb up the corporate ladder.

Having as a teenager set himself the goal to avenge his father, who's business was destroyed by the industrialist Sir Charles Houghton, Mark is utterly consumed by this need and everything that he does is with the purpose of destroying Houghton and his company.

Mark starts at the bottom in his first company but leaving his contemporaries behind, rises quickly through the ranks as his career develops and his business skills become recognised. Highly successful in developing and launching new products he soon demonstrates that he is a man out of the ordinary and later in the book we see how having gained his first Managing Director's appointment he totally transforms a moribund business.

Headhunted to a larger multi-national company he is finally in a position to start to attack Houghton. Using every business technique at his disposal - some legal some not - he progressively gets close to Houghton's businesses and then systematically destroys them.

Starting in America by ruining Houghton's American operations he buys up the shell that is left. In Europe he stalks and pursues Houghton's European and British businesses.

He learns to use the power of The City of London's financial institutions to his benefit and forces the resignation of his Chairman who he sees as a blockage. Using Public Relations companies to his advantage together with his use of Industrial espionage he leaves no stone unturned in his need to trap and destroy Sir Charles Houghton.

Although married to Abi, he has a long term passionate affair with his secretary however we see many times how he tries to come to terms with his feelings for two women and his constant mental turmoil over his unfaithfulness. But it doesn't detract him from his long term goal to destroy Sir Charles and his company.

The exciting climax of the book sees the reader discovering whether Mark will succeed in reaching the end of his Ambition.

Ambition's End Characters: Mark Watson, Sir Charles Houghton, Abi Watson and Sam.