Description

‘A riot’ The Times
‘Absolutely irresistible’ Joanna Lumley
‘Entertaining and energetic’ Stylist
‘I couldn’t put it down!’ Michelle Ogundehin

I Shop, Therefore I Am is the story of how Mary Portas transformed Harvey Nichols from a dying department store to an era-defining fashion destination.

With her trademark wit and candour, Mary takes us behind the shop window – to the heady glamour and excess of the nineties, to the risks she took and the stunts she pulled, to the people who kept the show on the road and the tough lessons that have shaped her career. It is a story of grit, resilience and vision against all odds.

Publisher Review

Portas is a sort of tornado, unpredictable, funny and slightly terrifying, travelling at the speed of light. But in the quiet eye of this storm of a book lies great wisdom and truth. Absolutely irresistible — JOANNA LUMLEY I Shop, Therefore I Am is so enthralling that I kept pausing in order to savour the next anecdote or clever, acidic observation . . . It’s worth riding alongside this observant semi-outsider, disrupter, inspirer * * Times Literary Supplement * * Entertaining and energetic, it zips along as a chronicle of hilarious exchanges and changing times. But more than that, it reminds us that business is a creative act, and shopping is a conscious decision * * Stylist * * If anyone wants to know what it was like to be a woman working in the heart of London fashion retail in the ’90s, Mary Portas’s book provides an entertaining rollercoaster ride — ALEXANDRA SHULMAN The book, featuring cameos by Naomi Campbell; Diana, Princess of Wales and other outsize personalities, is a window into the creativity and collaboration that reimagined the formerly fusty department store as a fashion destination and has propelled Ms. Portas’s career ever since * * New York Times * * A book with all the grit, gossip, beauty and brutality of retail. I couldn’t put it down! — MICHELLE OGUNDEHIN From her 70s childhood to her time at Harvey Nichols, this memoir is funny, moving and wise in equal measures * * Good Housekeeping * * A riot * * The Times * * Britain’s “Queen of Shops” takes us back three decades to her time stalking the floor at Harvey Nichols, at the height of its Ab Fab-inspired cachet * * Guardian * * This page-turning memoir is Absolutely Fabulous fun – quite literally. But it is also about the serious business of following one’s instincts, taking creative risks and negotiating inflexible (male) managers — CAROLINE SANDERSON * * Bookseller * *