Shopgirls

‘[Go] behind the glamorous shop fronts and the glitzy shop floors of Britain’s department stores... Here the hidden history is revealed.’ Saga Magazine Meet the shopgirls and hear their incredible true stories of life behind the counter. In this lively and colourful history, we join shopgirl Chili Bouchier on her journey from the small ladies’ department at Harrods to star of the silver screen, and experience the raw courage of John Lewis’ Miss Austin during the Blitz in the West End. We follow Margaret Bondfield as she goes undercover, fiercely championing the rights of her fellow shopgirls; and stand alongside the impoverished interwar chain store assistants who stole stockings to supplement their meagre wages. And we celebrate with the art school entrepreneurs who kick-started the boutique movement of the swinging ’60s and made the shop floor their own. Here, these wonderful tales of friendship, hardship and triumph are revealed as never before. For fans of nostalgic history and memoir, including Call the Midwife; Mollie Moran's Aprons and Silver Spoons; and The Sugar Girls

At 30 years old Erika Leib's personal hardships have stalled her into a mundane life of safety and security. Not that she spends much time thinking about it like that. She's underemployed at a job that probably should appreciate her more but that is hardly uncommon. She's got a halfway decent, sort of relationship with no pressure to make a larger commitment and a family who loves her. Plus she's got Rachel- her best friend, confidant, the person who's always been there for her and always will be. It's not where she thought she'd be but she's content. That all changed, however, after her chance meeting with actor, Xavier James. Soon Erika begins to re-evaluate her own worth and must decide if she's ready to rediscover the girl who once would leap without thinking or if she's prepared to stay just another shopgirl. Loaded with good food and fueled by the importance of good friendships, the book is like Sex and the City for a generation that could never afford the extravagance Carrie and Co. promised

A friends-to-lovers forbidden romance to warm your heart! From forbidden love To forever? Belles Biscuit Shop is more like a home than a place of work for Nancy MacQueen. The shared attraction between her and James Redbourne, the handsome owner of a nearby store, has been simmering for years, but she’s refused to trust his feelings for her. After all, they’re not remotely in the same social class. Until one day Nancy can no longer deny her love—only to find he’s become engaged to someone else! From Harlequin Historical: Your romantic escape to the past. Regency Belles of Bath Book 1: An Unconventional Countess Book 2: Unexpectedly Wed to the Officer Book 3: The Duke's Runaway Bride Book 4: The Shopgirl's Forbidden Love

One of our country's most acclaimed and beloved entertainers, Steve Martin has written a novella that is unexpectedly perceptive about relationships and life. Martin is profoundly wise when it comes to the inner workings of the human heart. Mirabelle is the "shopgirl" of the title, a young woman, beautiful in a wallflowerish kind of way, who works behind the glove counter at Neiman Marcus "selling things that nobody buys anymore . . ." Slightly lost, slightly off-kilter, very shy, Mirabelle charms because of all that she is not: not glamorous, not aggressive, not self-aggrandizing. Still there is something about her that is irresistible. Mirabelle captures the attention of Ray Porter, a wealthy businessman almost twice her age. As they tentatively embark on a relationship, they both struggle to decipher the language of love--with consequences that are both comic and heartbreaking. Filled with the kind of witty, discerning observations that have brought Steve Martin critical success, Shopgirl is a work of disarming tenderness.

Summer 1942. Despite grim reports on the wireless and rationing hitting hard, Lily Collins and her fellow shop girls from Marlow's department store are determined to put out the bunting for a family party. But Beryl's husband Les returns from North Africa a changed man, and Gladys worries for her own fiance's safety. The store is losing staff to the war effort and Lily's young man, Jim, is torn over where his duty lies. Then comes the knock on the door that everyone dreads. Lily's family, always the heart of her world, is rocked to the core. The small Midlands town - and Lily's beloved Marlow's - must face their greatest challenge yet.

For Eve, Irene, Betty and Rosemary, working at the exclusive Heyworth's department store in Cambridge is a dream come true. Once the girls step inside the elegant building - surrounded by luxurious dresses and beautiful accessories - the hardships of their own lives are temporarily forgotten. Serving a variety of curious customers, from glamorous gypsy queens to genuine royalty and stuffy academics to the city's fashionable elite, the store is a place where these young women can forge successful careers, under the ever-watchful eye of flamboyant owner Mr Heyworth. Set against the backdrop of the closing years of the Second World War, and moving into the 1950s, The Shop Girls perfectly captures the camaraderie and friendship of four ambitious young women working together in a store that offered them an escape from the drudgery of their wartime childhoods. Each of the girls' stories will be individually published from July 2014 in fortnightly serialised ebooks, leading up to the release of the complete edition (with bonus material) in September.

Film and Cinema Spectatorship provides a clear and wide-ranging introduction to different debates and traditions of viewing cinema. In this new book, Jan Campbell offers a comprehensive account of the different theoretical perspectives on film and cinema spectatorship, situating these in their cultural and historical contexts. Among the perspectives covered are those of feminism, modernism and cultural studies, with chapters dedicated to important topics such as early film, stars and film aesthetics. Campbell also provides accessible explorations of the importance of key themes to film and cinema spectatorship, such as mimesis, melodrama, performance and time. The timely and comprehensive text will be essential reading for anyone interested in debates on film theory, psychoanalysis and film, and the history of cinema. This book will be of special interest to students of film studies, media studies and cultural studies.

Mar Soria presents an innovative cultural analysis of female workers in Spanish literature and films. Drawing from nation-building theories, the work of feminist geographers, and ideas about the construction of the marginal subject in society, Soria examines how working women were perceived as Other in Spain from 1880 to 1975. By studying the representation of these marginalized individuals in a diverse array of cultural artifacts, Soria contends that urban women workers symbolized the desires and anxieties of a nation caught between traditional values and rapidly shifting socioeconomic forces. Specifically, the representation of urban female work became a mode of reinforcing and contesting dominant discourses of gender, class, space, and nationhood in critical moments after 1880, when social and economic upheavals resulted in fears of impending national instability. Through these cultural artifacts Spaniards wrestled with the unresolved contradictions in the gender and class ideologies used to construct and maintain the national imaginary. ​ Whether for reasons of inattention or disregard of issues surrounding class dynamics, nineteenth- and twentieth-century Spanish literary and cultural critics have assumed that working women played only a minimal role in the development of Spain as a modern nation. As a result, relatively few critics have investigated cultural narratives of female labor during this period. Soria demonstrates that without considering the role working women played in the construction and modernization of Spain, our understanding of Spanish culture and life at that time remains incomplete.