The Cambridge Phenomenon: 50 Years of Innovation and Enterprise covers the remarkable history of the Phenomenon since 1960, from the challenges of starting businesses in a hostile environment to the boom years in the late 1980s and 1990s, the dotcom bust in 2000 and the new reality of starting and growing businesses when money is tight. It also explores the different factors behind Cambridge's success, investigating the ways investors, government policies, networks, consultancies and even pubs have contributed to growing what has been described as the single most important region in the UK in terms of GDP generated from innovation and technology.

Above all, though, the book is about the people and how they have innovated, responded, sometimes in the face of adversity, to technological, business and external challenges, learned, grown, and then been willing to put something back. The Cambridge Phenomenon has succeeded because the people involved have made it greater than the sum of its parts.