title: King of Coal: A Gem Putanto Novel
author: Jeremy Figgins
description: In 1953, Jeremy Figgins was one of the first babies to undergo a successful blood transfusion at birth thanks to the doctors and staff at Lewisham Hospital in South London, England. He spent his early years making the most of the life he had been given, gaining a love for travel and the experiences of new cultures, whilst developing a career in investment banking based on his qualification as a Solicitor of England and Wales. He moved to South-East Asia in the 1980s and pursued his career in banking where he could observe first-hand the attitudes, strengths and weaknesses of Asian cultures and the successes and failings of Asian businesses. Dismayed with the incompetence and lack of understanding of accountability he observed in too many senior bankers, he left the industry, probably with a mutual sigh of relief, before its crises in the 1990s and 2000s, to work with various companies in a wide variety of businesses, small and large, including a large coal miner. The important things in his life are his wife and family of four step-children and the eleven grandchildren they have given him. He never had kids himself due to his life-long fear that the world cannot support its rate of population growth and his thought that other species deserve room on the planet as much as homo sapiens. That and his fear of changing nappies. King of Coal is his second book and looks at corruption, use and abuse of power and how the exploitation of natural resources could enrich just a few people at the expense of many. His first, Ive Got a Cash Flow Problem, was lost along with the back-up disks from a smash and grab raid on his car in the 1998 Financial Crisis, when a lap-top became worth several years salary to many Asians. The book, a novel looking at how entrepreneurs react in the face of impending bankruptcy, was lost and never published. King of Coal is a prequel to his third book, which deals with a way to solve problems of pollution and energy. That book, Dam Energy, will be published soon and has been inspired by his friend N. Gunananthans writings in a book Energy Revolution: Evolution or End of Humanity. The central character of both King of Coal and Dam Energy, Gem Putanto, is a fictional character although the author suspects many people would like to be this person. Jeremy can be contacted at jfiggins@navigos. biz
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  King Coal
  
  
  [INTRODUCTION](King%20Coal_split_001.html#filepos19484)
  
  
  [BOOK ONE. THE DOMAIN OF KING COAL](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos25316)
  
  
    
    
  [SECTION 1.](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos25458)  
    
  [SECTION 2.](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos36113)  
    
  [SECTION 3.](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos44710)  
    
  [SECTION 4.](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos48487)  
    
  [SECTION 5.](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos57497)  
    
  [SECTION 6.](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos62585)  
    
  [SECTION 7.](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos68711)  
    
  [SECTION 8.](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos77591)  
    
  [SECTION 9.](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos80690)  
    
  [SECTION 10.](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos87273)  
    
  [SECTION 11.](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos93924)  
    
  [SECTION 12.](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos98599)  
    
  [SECTION 13.](King%20Coal_split_002.html#filepos106424)  
    
  [SECTION 14.](King%20Co