Shopping, Seduction & Mr Selfridge

The men who created the first department stores - what Zola called'great cathedrals of shopping'- made vast fortunes, but no one understood consumption as a sensual female entertainment better than the maverick American retailer Harry Gordon Selfridge. In 1909 London's first dedicated department store built from scratch opened in a glorious burst of publicity, spearheaded by the largest advertising campaign ever mounted in the British press. In his eponymous store Selfridge created nothing less than'the theatre of retail'. His personal life was just as flamboyant, one of mistresses and mansions, racehorses and yachts. In this book Lindy Woodhead tells the extraordinary story of a revolution in shopping and the rise and fall of a retail prince.