Last month, 20 years to the day since Black Monday, when the world's stock exchanges took a battering, the Dow Jones index lost 2.6 per cent of its value.o This blow to the US economy was a fraction of the 23 per cent drop two decades earlier, but enough to prompt concern about rising interest rates and inflation across the world.

Watching the situation closely from Witney, was Gary Frank, the 49-year-old, married, father-of- three and managing director of The Fabulous Bakin' Boys.

Mr Frank's company, which makes muffins, flapjacks, cakes and other desserts, is a household name and has just celebrated its 10th anniversary.

But in 1987, Mr Frank lost everything he owned on Black Monday - October 19 - when he was working in New York as a share trader.

After graduating from Oxford University, the 23-year-old philosophy graduate had taken up an offer from friends to go and stay in New York.

And it was there he found a job trading 'futures' - contracts that say the buyer will purchase a specific item for a specific price at a specific time in the future Pretty soon he was renting his own plush New York apartment and living a champagne lifestyle.

He said: "I was what people called a yuppie. The character Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street - I was just like him.

But the champagne was about to go flat.

He said: "It was very speculative work, like gambling in a casino, betting on red or black. But although I started off trading some and keeping money in reserve, the more successful I got, the more money I would gamble on the market until eventually all the money I owned was being bet. Then came the crash."

He added: "I literally went to bed one night and woke up the next day with nothing.

"The trouble was, traders like myself worked on computers which were programmed to sell when shares reached a certain price.

"No-one really knows exactly what happened on Black Monday but eventually all the computers started selling, and because everyone was selling, there were no buyers and the value of the shares just hit rock bottom."

Left with just the cash in his wallet - barely enough to get a plane ticket home to England - he handed back the keys to his apartment and left the States.

He said: "Luckily I'd kept on a tiny cottage I had in Islip and I came back here to Oxfordshire to take stock of what had happened."

He said: "I signed on the dole and got £39 a week. I looked for work but all the city traders in London were losing their jobs too.

"I applied to supermarkets in Oxford for work, but they turned me down too, obviously put off by the CV of an Oxford graduate and ex-city trader!"

He added: "Life was very different to before. I had a bike to get around on and I grew some of my own veg in the garden and even baked my own bread."

He was unemployed for almost a year: Then he had a dream.

He said: "It's true - I dreamed of an old boy in a long white gown and a long white beard and flowing hair - it was very Biblical. And he said, 'Gary; you're going to make doughnuts'.

"Six months after the dream, I launched the Delicious Donuts Company on an industrial estate in Witney."

This company would become the Fabulous Bakin' Boys and although Gary won't talk about money, it's safe to say the fortune he lost is back in the bank.

He said: "Of course, as a businessman I'm keeping a close eye on what is happening in America, but the situation is different now to what it was in 1987.

"The share falls are mainly due to a weakness in the US housing market, which is now spreading to other areas of the economy.

"Even so, anyone who has a mortgage or is a lender is concerned about possible rises in interest rates because of what's happening over there.

"Another repercussion for my business here in Oxfordshire, and all businesses in Britain, is the rise in the cost of raw materials; flour, oil, packaging, everything is costing more, and because we can't absorb that cost, it is passed on to the supermarkets and they pass it on to the customers, resulting in a rise in inflation."

But Mr Frank remains upbeat. He said: "Although I lost everything in 1987, I do think that it showed that we can recover. And I know I can.

"After Black Monday, people talked of there being another Depression, like that in the 1920s, but that never happened.

"I'll be keeping a close eye on what happens over in the States, but I am very confident about my business and the future."