David Gilchrist

Book review: Profitability, accounting theory and methodology: The selected essays of Geoffrey Whittington: Geoffrey Whittington Routledge, Abingdon, 2007, x + 464pp. ISBN: 978—0—415—37644-0

Geoffrey Whittington is one of the few academics who have made a lasting contribution to both accounting and economics. In his prefatory comments to this volume, Stephen A. Zeff briefly describes Whittington’s contribution to both academic discourse and accounting practice while also making note of the various honours and prizes that Whittington has justly deserved and which serve to illustrate the expansive nature of his multifaceted career. The book commences with an introduction written by Whittington. In this section the author provides a brief but very interesting autobiography concerning the development of his first love – history. He then proceeds to describe the many and varied twists and turns taken to arrive, via a short stint as an accountant in public practice, in academia to undertake research in accounting and economics. His LSE degree, taken as a result of his “utilitarian preferences” (p.2) prevailing over his love of history, introduced him to a number of highly regarded scholars from various fields. This experience, combined with the relentless cycle of audit in public practice, confirmed his love of all things academic. The autobiographical section of the introduction also provides a well-written description of the development of Whittington’s research interests. Initial research projects, in which Whittington participated as a Research Officer at Cambridge,