yeovilliteraryfestival

Mary Portas - I Shop, Therefore I Am

Mary Portas is a businesswoman, broadcaster, author and activist. At age 32, she became a board member at Harvey Nichols before founding her own retail consultancy, Portas, where she continues to work with the biggest names in global retail. Her BBC series, Mary, Queen of Shops premiered in 2007 and she's presented on TV and radio ever since. Mary will be talking about her new paperback, I Shop, Therefore I Am, part memoir and part manifesto for business as a creative act.

It's the 1990's: Britpop is dominating the charts, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell are on the cover of every glossy magazine and British fashion is ripe for reinvention. Leading the charge is twenty-something Mary Portas who has been brought in to revitalise the department store Harvey Nichols, at the time more likely to be associated with dowagers than daring designers.

With two babies at home, a sceptical, all-male senior management team to impress, and pressure to bring in new brands and customers, Mary steps into a world she doesn't fully understand. At first it shows, but that vulnerability quickly reveals itself as vision. By the millennium, the store would be renowned for its outrageous, headline-grabbing, traffic-stopping window displays; patronage by style icon Lady Di and bolly-swigging duo Patsy and Edina of the iconic sitcom Ab Fab - no longer fusty old Harvey Nichols but Harvey Nicks, daaarling!

This event will take place in Westlands Ballroom.

Tickets: £15
Footlights: Discount applies 

This is a Yeovil Literary Festival Event.

A £1.50 ticket levy is included in all stated ticket prices.
All bookings are subject to a £2 transaction Fee.