Shop Girl

Original version

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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Mary Portas

Jo Coombs

Hannah Marshall

Book of the Week: Mary Portas - Shop Girl: Episode 2

Episode 2

Mary Portas - Shop Girl

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Mary Portas - Shop Girl, Episode 2

The teenage Mary Portas is devasted by the loss of her mother. Read by the author.

When her mum is taken seriously ill, tragedy threatens to blow the family apart. Mary Portas recounts her 1970s childhood.

Mary Portas reads her moving and hilarious memoir of her early years.
 
It's 1974 and the world is changing. Glam-rock boys who look like girls are wearing silk and glitter on Top of the Pops, and even in Watford chicken chow mein is all the rage and Oxford bags are making an appearance on the market stalls.

For the young Mary Portas, life is full of opportunity which she'll seize as soon as she's old enough for a Saturday job. She's never happier than when she's singing along to David Bowie songs with her brothers and sister, with backcombed hair and fuchsia eye shadow. 
 
Her mum, a stickler for the rules when it comes to school and church, is happy to encourage her children's self-expression. But this world of chaotic creativity is blown apart when Mary's mother is taken seriously ill.

Read by the author
Abridged by Jo Coombs

Produced by Hannah Marshall
A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4

Book of the Week: Mary Portas - Shop Girl

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Mary Portas reads her moving account of growing up in a small Watford semi in the 1970s.

Mary Portas reads her moving, funny account of growing up in a large Irish family in a small Watford semi in the 1970s. Abridged by Jo Coombs

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