Shop Girl

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What to expect

Young Mary Newton, born into a large Irish family in a small Watford semi, is always getting into trouble. When she isn’t choking back fits of giggles at Holy Communion or eating Chappie dog food for a bet, she’s accidentally setting fire to the local school. Mary is a trouble magnet. And, unlike her brothers, somehow she always gets caught…

Britain in the 1970s is a world where R. White's lemonade is drunk in secret, curry comes in a box marked Vesta and beanz meanz Heinz. In Mary’s family, money is scarce. Clothes are hand-me-downs, holidays are a church day out to Hastings and meals are variations on a potato theme. But these are good times and everything revolves around the force of nature that is Theresa, Mary’s mum.

When tragedy unexpectedly blows this world apart, a new chapter in Mary’s life opens up. She takes to the camp and glamour of Harrods window dressing like a duck to water, and Mary, Queen of Shops is born…

Critics Review

  • Portas writes with wit and verve… The book has the narrative charm of Anita and Me or The Buddha of Suburbia; so when the darkness comes it’s genuinely shocking. Shop Girl is a testament to survival. But most of all it is a love letter to her mother, Mary Flynn. Every joke, argument, cake baked, tenderness proffered, sings off the page. ‘To my mum – How lucky was I getting you’ is the book’s dedication. And we are lucky to read it.

    Independent

  • Enormous fun, readable, nostalgic, poignant and authentic… Read it then give it to your daughter

    Daily Express

  • Absolutely fabulous… Colourful, camp and unexpectedly heart-rending, I loved it.

    The Bookseller

  • Her school stories are hilarious… a nostalgia-fest

    Heat

  • Portas’s memoir is witty, fascinating and, at times, sad but always compelling

    Stylist

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