I have already read a couple of books by panelists from Dragon’s Den, the BBC TV show that puts would-be entrepreneurs in front of self-made millionaires for their money or their ridicule.

On Saturday I picked up another — Theo Paphitis’ Enter the Dragon — in a Waterstones’ 3-for-2 offer.

Perhaps I’ve become a Dragon’s Den groupie? I’m certainly not reading these books for their literary qualities.

100 Secret Strategies for Successful Investing by Richard Farleigh is like the brain dump of a share bulletin board poster with verbal diarrhea. There wasn’t much takeaway value, though Farleigh’s rags-to-riches tale was heartening.

Duncan Bannatyne meanwhile took time off from snarling at the inventors of dog treadmills and revolutionary shower caps to write Anyone Can Do It.

Bannatyne wasn’t promising much more than a pep talk, but his book worked better than Farleigh’s, perhaps because Duncan made his initial money selling ice creams, whereas Fairleigh earned his wodge investing other people’s billions — not really an option for most of us.

So what about Theo Paphitis? The Dragons are famously competitive: Does Theo measure up?

Enter The Dragon: How I Transformed My Life and You Can Too is at least snappier to read than its title.

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This week we saw more signs that the world was moving out of recession. Well, that France and Germany were moving out of recession.

Both countries posted +0.3% GDP growth figures for the second quarter, causing economists to splutter their croissants and sausages all over Le Monde and Der Spiegel.

In difficult times one has to put aside one’s Little Englander mentality and be grateful for good news, even if it falls at the feet of the Germans and the French.

After all, what happens across the Channel will surely soon follow here (leather shorts, saying ‘Ciao!’ and a sensible attitude towards alcohol excepted).

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A couple of days ago I bought shares in the Blackrock Smaller Companies Investment Trust (BRSC).

Together with my positions in two other similar trusts – Aberforth Smaller Companies and The Rights and Issues Investment Trust – plus a handful of individual small cap holdings, I’ve now got around 15% of my net wealth in mini companies.

Partly I think (or thought) that these trusts were beaten down too much in the bear market; I’ve already written about the Rights and Issues Trust, and my investment in Aberforth is showing a profit, too, although my first buy was too early.

But my putting money into the Blackrock Smaller Companies Trust is prompted by a slightly different motivation.

I’m increasingly minded to think the worst of the economic slump is behind us.

As recently as February I felt isolated in looking on the economic bright side; given what happened in March, perhaps that was deserved!

But latterly optimism has spread as fast as bearishness did in 2008, leading to a big run up in share prices.

This optimism is the motivation for investing in small caps.

Historically, over the long-term small cap value shares outperform larger companies – it’s one of the very few edges a private investor can be fairly confident of securing versus investing in a broad market tracker.

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